Let’s Play Basketball

When writing my first book, Rimshots, there were several poems and stories that, for whatever reason, didn’t make the book. One of those poems was called “Traveling” and it was written in the voice of the ball talking. It wasn’t quite right for Rimshots, but I loved the poem so much that it became it’s own book called Let’s Play Basketball. It’s a very visual poem so I thought an illustrator could have fun with it. Most of my books on basketball are aimed at older kids so it was fun to do something for younger kids.

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Let’s Play Baseball

This book was the natural follow-up to Let's Play Basketball. This time, a restless baseball pleads with a young boy to take him out to play.

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Diamond Life

I’m a big fan of baseball and always knew I would do a baseball book eventually. Diamond Life has a lot in common with Rimshots even though it’s about baseball: I took the photos first for two years, then I wrote the stories and poems. Diamond Life, like Rimshots, opens with an “I Remember” poem since I have great memories from baseball, just like I do from basketball. Just like in Rimshots, the poems and stories have their own unique shapes and style. Since baseball is a different sport though, I made sure that each position was represented in the poems to keep it interesting and fun. Hear poems from this book

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I Am America

The idea for this book was partly inspired by the events of September 11th. I wanted to do a book on the United States, showing kids in different states and what makes their state unique. The problem was that I couldn't come up with a solid idea to tie it all together. When the events happened, what stuck out most was how certain groups of people were treated, even though they too were American. Hearing people shout "Go back to where you came from" made me very upset because technically most of our relatives aren’t from here and have come from all over the world to make our country strong. So I began to focus on what a "typical American" is. The truth is, our country is ever changing and there really is no typical American. Cultures are crossing all the time and more and more religions are being introduced. I decided to write a poem that focused on the things that are uniquely American. Things like the type of music invented here, like Jazz and Hip-Hop or Country as well as different styles of fashion unique to us. The poem would celebrate our diversity and show kids of all nationalities just having fun. To do this I did multiple photos of each kid. I didn't want the photos to have a "yearbook" look to them, so I made a point of making the kids laugh and doing things they probably only do with their friends. In the section that mentions the different races and religions, I wanted it to be hard to figure out who was who, because here in America, that's how it is, and how it should be. It doesn't matter what a person looks like, what matters is who they are.

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Loki & Alex

For a long time I wanted to do a project where I took photographs from a dog’s point of view. Some time ago, I don’t remember when, I found out that dogs don’t see the world in color the way we do; they see it in black and white. I always thought this would make for a great series of photographs because dogs are much smaller than us humans and they see the world in a different way. I was able to turn this idea into reality when it came time to create another book. But if all of the pictures we’d be seeing would be from the dog’s point of view, I knew I would need someone else, a friend of his, to show the dog. That’s where Alex comes in. Whenever Loki talks, the images we see are in black and white, because he’s a dog. But when his friend Alex talks, his pictures are in color, because he’s a boy. I got the name Loki from my friends dog who I used to walk and the name Alex came from my nephew. The name Loki comes from Norse (Viking) mythology, meaning the God of Mischief, and that describes him to a T. See images from this book

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