Dear Reader, When I was eight-years-old, I met a professional tennis player named Arthur Ashe. He was a very nice man who didn’t look like an athlete. He was tall and skinny and wore big glasses. I thought he looked like a teacher, not the number-one tennis player in the world! Mr. Ashe was very… Read more »
Author-In-Residence
KICKERS! by Rich Wallace
It’s always a treat to find books that I’m thrilled to pass along to students – both boys and girls – and KICKERS is one such series. The stories move quickly, the action is fast-paced, and each book delivers a realistic view of team sports and the challenges individual players must overcome in order to… Read more »
Rich Wallace, Author-In-Residence
The flap copy on the back of each book in the KICKERS series announces: “Read them all!” And yes, we agree. You surely must! Each of the books – The Ball Hogs, Fake Out, Benched, and Game Day Jitters – is packed with fast-paced action and the ups and downs of learning how to be… Read more »
Rich’s Story
I grew up in northern New Jersey in a very busy household. I had three older brothers, two younger sisters, and a little brother. We were all very involved in activities like Scouts, music (not me), art lessons, and especially sports, so my mother cooked a lot of meals in shifts because some of us… Read more »
Your Friend, Rich Wallace
Dear Reader, When I was a boy, sports were very important in our house. I had three older brothers, and they all played football and ran track. So I couldn’t wait to play sports, too. I always tried hard in sports, and I did pretty well. But sometimes I tried too hard. Like Ben in… Read more »
Welcome Special Guest, Bethany Hegedus
Maebelle T. Earl is one distraught eleven-year-old. Not only is she the daughter of brilliant book-touring family therapists, but she’s flunked out of the Gifted & Talented program at her school and is being forced to spend the summer with her ten-year-old, newly adopted, trumpet-playing prodigy cousin, Isaac and her beloved, quirky, and musically-gifted grandparents… Read more »
Bethany’s Story
I was born in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Bolingbrook is a suburb of Chicago and is now considered a big town but when I was a kid, Bolingbrook was nothing but cornfields. Oh, and there was a creek. I loved the creek. My brother and I would play there almost every day afterschool. He and his friends… Read more »
