Kid America: A Novel of Inheritance and Survival
Available November 3
About
I write stories about adolescents struggling to become who they want to be in a world not of their making.
I’m a teacher,
father,
champion of youthful brilliance, and
author of narratives with strong characters and smart plot lines that speak to the complexity of adolescent existence and the issues that shape their worlds.
I'm a proud Chicagoan of forty years, transplanted from a small town in central Indiana. I came to fiction writing after over thirty years of teaching at all levels--elementary, middle school, high school, and college. When I'm not teaching or writing, I support my neighborhood school and get outside no matter the weather for nature and urban hikes.
I write stories about adolescents struggling to become who they want to be in a world not of their making.
I’m a teacher,
father,
champion of youthful brilliance, and
author of narratives with strong characters and smart plot lines that speak to the...
Blog
Check out my guest blog post at "Literacy in Place," a website about rural literacy and literature for youth.
Here are the first two paragraphs to get you started:
I live among high rises and along crowded streets. I navigate parking restrictions and rush hour commutes. I wake to sirens in the middle of the night and wait seemingly forever for the next bus. And within a fifty-yard radius of my home there are two to three times more...
I was back in Cook County Jail after a two-year pandemic hiatus. Liz—my GA—and I were sitting in the mini-auditorium-turned-classroom waiting for the eleven incarcerated men to be brought to us. We had arranged the chairs in a tight circle—thirteen this week. Next week it would be twenty-three when the DePaul students joined us. This day, Liz and I were there to introduce ourselves and prepare the men for my Inside-Out university course, “Deconstructing the School to Prison Pipeline.” For...
A couple of weeks ago I rolled out Kid America’s cover for everyone to see. Well, it’s changed a bit. Take a look and guess how it has changed. Below is the first reveal. At the top is the latest and final one.
Yep, the difference is obvious. Aimé, KA’s Production Director, and I discussed the cover quite a bit after the first reveal. She pushed for a color scheme that would better represent the novel’s themes. I tend to let things be, but she wanted to make sure it captured...
Check in often for updates
New postings each week.