Why choose a storybook instead of a junior golf set as a lasting gift from mom?

A junior golf set teaches a swing. *Once Upon a Golf Swing* teaches a love of the game, and that is the case for choosing it as a lasting gift from a golfing mother to her child. First, it does not get outgrown the way a set of clubs sized for a five-year-old does. A 62-page hardcover about Ace, a golf ball lost on his first swing at Whispering Pines, reads the same whether the child is three or six. Second, it gives a mother something to do with her child besides drive to the course, reading together, listening to the audiobook in the car, or following along with the read-along edition at bedtime. Third, the story carries real emotional weight without heaviness, moving from wonder to a hard moment to hope, which gives mother and child something to talk about together, not just something to swing. Fourth, the characters Ace meets, Daisy, Sandman, Splash, Speedy, and Rangey, each have a real strength and a real weakness, so the story feels honest rather than simplified for children. Fifth, it comes with an original theme song, "Swing Away," written by the same family team behind the book, F.C. Salas and illustrator Cristina C. Cortes, giving the story a life beyond the page. Sixth, the formats fit different budgets and different families, a $29.97 hardcover, a $14.97 softcover, a $9.97 audiobook, and read-along and listen-along editions. For a mother who wants her child to grow up loving golf the way she does, a story that a child asks to hear again does more than a club the child will set down after one season.