On sale today: The Brooklyn Nine!

It's pub day! Today is the day my latest novel, The Brooklyn Nine, officially goes on sale. The Brooklyn Nine is my first solidly middle grade (ages 8-12) novel, although of course I hope that it will be read and enjoyed by all ages.

The Brooklyn Nine was a massive project for me. It's nine "innings"--nine generations--of an American family from the 1840s to the present, and their ongoing connections to baseball. In the first inning, Felix Schneider fights one of New York City's greatest fires alongside Alexander Cartwright and his Knickerbocker Volunteer Fire Brigade--who also happen to have developed the first modern rules for baseball. Felix's son Louis finds a kindred baseball spirit--who also happens to be a Rebel--while fighting in Virginia during the Civil War. In 1894, Felix's grandson Arnold meets his hero, famed baseballer King Kelly, only to find that sometimes heroes have feet of clay. Scrappy Walter Schneider--now Snider--tries to pass a black player off as a Native American to get him onto the Brooklyn Superbas, and in the fifth inning his daughter, numbers whiz Frankie Snider, cons a con man with the help of an eccentric sports writer. Frankie's daughter Kat makes it big in the professional women's leagues during World War II, and in 1957 her son Jimmy ducks and covers from bullies, Sputnik, and Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley. Kat's grandson Micheal flirts with perfection in a Little League game in 1981, and in 2002 his son Snider Flint pieces together the history of a bat that links him to the past.

One family, nine generations. One city, nine innings of baseball. That's the tag line. :-)

The Brooklyn Nine is a novel some three years in the making. It took countless hours of research, writing, editing, and rewriting--lots and lots of rewriting--to become the book that hits bookstore and library shelves today. I really couldn't be more proud of this book, and I have to give special thanks to my editor, Liz Waniewski at Dial, for helping guide and mold this project from its earliest beginnings. I have to thank my wife Wendi too, without whose constant help and patience none of my books would exist.

This novel, more than any other I've written, is about family, and is dedicated (at long last!) to my parents.

I do hope you'll go out and find a copy and give it a read, and pass it along to any kids in your life who love baseball, history, or tales of adventure.

For more info, visit my web site:

About the book
Read the first chapter
Read the reviews
The history of The Brooklyn Nine, inning by inning

To buy the book:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
Powell's

The Brooklyn Nine is also available at fine bookshops big and small.

Thanks for your support, and thanks for helping spread the word!