"In my work with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America I see all kinds of challenges facing kids today, and this book does a very good job of treating gifted kids and teenagers with sensitivity and understanding in coping with and meeting these challenges." --Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

The Legend of Mickey Tussler

ISBN: 978-0312381097 (St. Martin's)

Seventeen-year-old Mickey Tussler is recruited to play for a minor league affiliate of the Boston Braves in the 1940s. Arthur Murphy, a scout and coach for the minor league Milwaukee Brewers, swears that Mickey is a phenom- one who has the greatest arm Murph has ever seen, that anybody has ever seen. And it might be true. But Mickey is also autistic, before autism was given a name, and his Aspergers keeps him sealed off from a world he scarcely understands. But Arthur wants to take the chance. The minor league Brewers have had one of the worst records in baseball history, and he needs to do something to shake the team up. But can Mickey survive? Tormented by the memories of an abusive father and heckled by fans and teammates alike, the odds are stacked against him. But his inimitable talent -- one of the most gifted arms in the history of baseball - just might give him a chance. Can he survive a real life dream? Or are the harsh realities of life too much for him? This is the powerful underdog story of how a young man with an extraordinary gift comes of age in a harsh and competitive world that may not be ready for him.

Echoes From The Infantry
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ISBN: 978-0312332723 (St. Martin's)

Echoes from the Infantry is the tale of one Long Island World War II veteran, the misery of combat, and the powerful emotional bonds that brought him home.It is about a father and a son, and their ultimately redeeming struggle to understand each other's worlds - one a world at war, the other a world shaped by its veterans .

All James McCleary wants to do is forget the horrors of the battlefield. All his son John wants is to know his father.

But memory is unforgiving, and James remains locked inside his own mind, unable to embrace his wife and children as he would like to. Meanwhile John wrestles with troubling recollections of life with this enigmatic man he calls his father.

Now the death of John's mother draws the men together for a final showdown. As he sifts through family artifacts in his parent's attic, the disgruntled son gets a glimpse of the eternally frozen battlefields that left his father scarred,and of the quiet, secret love that sustained him across the wasted expanse of wartime Europe.