Showing results by author "Grant Overstake" in All Categories

With his father’s mysterious disappearance and his brother Ronnie enlisting in the Vietnam War, 13-year-old TJ Crowley is left alone with his racist, unstable mother, Kate. The newly enforced Fair Housing Act results in the unthinkable for the Crowleys when a Black family, headed by the eminent Dr. Washington, crosses the racial red line and moves in next door. Kate is quick to warn TJ that their new neighbors are strictly off-limits and makes a panicked call to beg Ray, her old flame, to travel to their home in Wichita Kansas to help deal with “the problem next door.”

Maggie Steele is a gritty farm girl from tiny Grain Valley, Kansas, who pours her broken heart into the daring, dangerous sport of pole-vaulting. Driven by a secret she cannot share with anyone, Maggie finds herself on a quest to soar far higher than critics think a girl should ever go. Unflinching in its exploration of teenage grief and filled with brilliant descriptions of a breathtaking, beautiful sport, Maggie Vaults over the Moon is a powerful and rewarding story for middle-grade listeners and adults.