Yes, for more than a decade, “under the auspices of Matt Christopher” I penned thirty nine titles in the Matt Christopher “Sports Biography” and “Legends in Sports” series” for Little Brown, profiling male and female athletes in all sports. Each of these best-selling titles emphasized the athlete as a role model. Each was written for a grade seven reading level and was approximately 20,000 words (100 pps.), targeted to children age 8-12. In 2008 an entire chapter from one of Glenn’s Matt Christopher titles was used in the English Language Arts test for seventh graders in New York State. On most of those titles, you’ll see my name on the title page. They’re all listed on the publication list on the “About Glenn Stout” page.
Unfortunately, despite the fact they were the best selling books of their type in the genre and outsold many of the Matt Christopher fiction titles, in 2007 Little Brown decided to go another direction with the books, and, namely, have somebody else write them. That’s unfortunate, because I enjoyed providing so many kids with books they liked to read, and I enjoyed meeting the thousands of kids I had the opportunity to meet when I was asked to visit their classrooms. Nothing like having teachers tell you that until a kid discovered my books, they wouldn’t read, and now they can’t stop. This was even recognized by the professionals, and an entire chapter of one of my titles is used in the English Language Arts test for seventh graders in New York state.
That’s why I am delighted to announce that I have just reached agreement with a publisher to begin work on another, better and bigger series of kids books with a sports emphasis. This time they’ll all be under my name.
Beginning In 2010 Glenn’s own series, “Good Sports,” will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Each title will profile 3-5 athletesaround a particular theme, emphasizing sportsmanship, hard work, tolerance and other positive values. Available in the Fall of 2010, the first “Good Sports” title “Baseball Heroes: Winning for Everyone” profiles Hank Greenberg (baseball’s first great Jewish star), Jackie Robinson (baseball’s first African American player) Fernando Valenzuela (baseball’s first great Mexican player) and Ila Borders (professional baseball’s most notable female player). Each profile demonstrates how each athlete had to overcome discrimination and stereotyping to play the game he or she loved.
Look for it the Fall of 2010, and more will appear soon after. To help support the series, I now also make author visits to schools. For more, see “Author Visits to Schools” in the column to the right.