Illinois Authors

Open Road Distribution, Newburyport, United States : 2015.

A Quiet Desperation is the straightforward autobiographical account of one man's disturbing journey through disabling mental illness and into the Community of Faith. This is a book that has provided help for many who have suffered psychiatric disorders, bringing hope without easy answers.

Aladdin Paperbacks, New York : 2001, ©1998.

While attending a high-profile basketball camp, T.J. begins to re-think both his motivations and his actions in guiding his learning-disabled but athletically-gifted friend through the college recruitment process.

Open Road Media Teen & Tween, 2015.

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults: To fulfill his destiny, a teenage boy takes refuge on an Indian reservation Ever since he can remember, Floyd Rayfield has wanted to be a Native American. Abandoned by his family and raised in foster care, Floyd has never had a sense of who he was meant to be until the night he has the dream. He sees himself as a warrior of the Sioux Indians and knows that it is his destiny to make the dream come true. He dyes his hair black, instructs his teachers to call him Charly Black Crow, and learns everything he can about the people he admires so much. When the society he has rejected pushes back, Floyd has no other option but to run. He takes refuge on the sprawling Pine Ridge Reservation. Living among actual Native Americans, Floyd learns more about their way of life than he could ever have imagined. By getting in touch with someone else & rsquo;s identity, he hopes finally to discover his own.

Holiday House, New York : ©2003.

Upset with the course her life has taken, pretty and popular senior Anne-Marie is drawn to the leader of a cult-like Christian group, becomes pregnant, and runs away to figure out what the Lord wants her to do with her life.

W.B. Eerdmans Pub., Grand Rapids, Mich. : ©2005.

"The Bible continues to be the world's runaway best-seller. But very few people could say just how its seemingly disparate jumble of writings - stories, letters, poems, collections of laws, religious visions - got there.

Open Road Media Teen & Tween, 2015.

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults: A teenage girl fights to overcome depression with help from a rebellious friend Outside her window, Grace hears a dove. The birdsong reminds her that there is a world outside her hospital room, that life is not always as confusing as it seems. It & rsquo;s a reminder she needs badly, because Grace & rsquo;s life has gotten pretty scrambled lately. After her father died, her world dissolved into blackness and she tried to find her way out with a razor blade. She survived and was treated with electroshock therapy, which only left her more mixed up than before. Now she is in a kinder place, trying to put herself back together, but aside from the dove outside her window, she cannot be sure what is real. Sometimes Grace hears her father & rsquo;s voice speaking to her. Sometimes she can & rsquo;t tell whether she is sleeping or awake. But Grace is a fighter, and with a little help, she will unscramble herself & mdash;no matter how long it takes.

Page Publishing 2018

In this brutally honest memoir, renowned author James W. Bennett takes the reader through his forty-plus-year struggle with a relentless mental illness. Along the way, he provides fully developed profiles of the many dogs who shared the journey, bringing support and comfort.

McFarland & Co., Jefferson, N.C. : ©2002.

Charles Radbourn won fifty-nine games in 1884, the stuff of legends. In eleven years he racked up over three hundred wins and forty-five hundred innings--mind-blowing numbers. And yet the facts of this Hall of Famer's play are more credible than the stories of his life of alcohol, womanizing, wild brawling, and, later, the ravages of syphilis. Radbourn's plaque at Cooperstown presents an image that is almost caricature: cap set forward, mouth open, mustache pricked up at the ends and thick as his nose is long, nearly. Not Charles, but Ol' Hoss. It is now May 1941, and the invented Chicago Tribune journalist John Trapp is on a train for Bloomington, Illinois, to cover ceremonies honoring the late Radbourn. Trapp meets (the real) baseballer Clark Griffith, who begins to tell him tales of the great pitcher. Our authors then have Trapp craft the first biography of the man, anchoring the details of his life in fact.

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, New York : 2001.

High school baseball star Coley Burke tries to deal with an ankle injury, back spasms, a pregnant girlfriend, academic failure, pressure from his father, and the legacy of his dead older brother.

Pin Oak Press, Springfield, IL : ©1996.

Vano is the best pitcher baseball has ever seen: can you imagine a 115MPH fastball? Every major league team is recruiting him. The Athletics are the highest bidders. But when Jose Canseco's bat hits Vano in the head, his priorities change. He is knocked into the world of HOOOMMM, becoming an astral traveler.

Scholastic, New York : ©2002.

Sonny, a university freshman and star basketball player, finds that the pressures of college life, NCAA competition, and an unsettling relationship with his feminist cousin bring up painful memories that he must face before he can decide what is important in his life.