The following is a list
of all my books and a short description of each one. Some of them may surprise you!
76-80. My Weird School Daze (HarperCollins, 2008-2009)
A.J., Andrea, and the gang are "graduating" to third grade, where they will have a new teacher and new outrageous adventures at Ella Mentry School. The titles are...
- Mrs. Dole is Out of Control!
- Mr. Sunny is Funny!
- Mr. Granite is from Another Planet!
- Coach Hyatt is a Riot!
- Officer Spence Makes No Sense!
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54. Nightmare at the Book Fair (Simon & Schuster, 2008)
After getting bonked in the head at his school book fair, Trip Dinkleman is knocked into a hypnotic dream state, where he is trapped for the rest of the book. Each chapter finds him inside a different kind of children’s book: horror, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, historical fiction, easy reader, sports, animal and even girls’ fiction. Very strange and different! |
53. Jim & Me (HarperCollins, 2008)
The eighth book in the baseball card adventure series. This time Stosh is going to travel back to the year 1913--with his arch enemy Bobby Fuller! They are on a mission to track down the legendary Jim Thorpe and help him regain his Olympic glory. Most people don’t know that Jim Thorpe played major league baseball, but after he won two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics, he was a member of The New York Giants, the team of Christy Mathewson and John McGraw. |
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52. Getting Air (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
My son Sam used to be obsessed with skateboarding, and he inspired this
story about some skaters who survive a plane crash and have to use their
survival skills in the wilderness. The book was also inspired by
one of my favorite books for kids, Gary Paulsen's Hatchet. |
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51. Satch & Me (HarperCollins, 2006)
The seventh book in the baseball card adventure series. Stosh decides
to try and find out who was the fastest pitcher in baseball history.
So he takes a radar gun back to 1942 and (as usual) some lunatic tries
to kill him. He also learns what life was like for African American
ballplayers before the “color barrier” was broken. Stosh’s Little
League coach Flip Valentini is along for the ride this time. |
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50. The Homework Machine
(Simon & Schuster, 2006)
Oh, you’re gonna love this. A genius kid creates a machine that does
your homework for you automatically. You just slip your homework in
and seconds later it pops out the other side, finished, perfect, and
it’s even in your handwriting. Need I say more? |
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49. Casey Back at Bat (HarperCollins, 2007)
This is a picture book that I wrote more than ten years earlier and was
rejected by about twenty publishers, including HarperCollins. It’s a
parody of “Casey at the Bat” and it’s about Casey’s NEXT at bat.
I thought it would be cool to have Casey hit the ball so hard that it
traveled all the way around the world and return to Earth, only to be
caught. (“But there’s still no joy in Mudville. Hard luck Casey has
flied out.”) The art by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher is incredible.
Some of the verses were written with the help of my stepfather Harold
Berlin, who sadly passed away before the book was published. It is
dedicated in his memory. |
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48. The Million Dollar Putt (Hyperion, 2006)
I was surfing the ‘net one night and Googled “blind”
and “golf” for
some reason. It turns out there are thousands of blind golfers all
over the world. Some of them were right in my backyard, at The
Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia. I even got to play
golf with them. So I concocted this wacky story about a blind kid
who takes up golf and the eccentric girl next door who becomes his
coach and friend. Check out the other million dollar books
(#21, 35, 40, 45) |
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47. Jackie Robinson and the Big Game
(Aladdin, 2006)
A beginning reader like “Babe Ruth and the Ice Cream Mess”
(#43) Just
about everything written about Jackie Robinson focuses on race. I
thought it would be interesting to focus on sibling rivalry with
Jackie’s older brother Mack, who was also a great athlete and won
a silver medal in the 1936 Olympics. |
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46. Abner & Me (HarperCollins, 2005)
The sixth book in my baseball card adventure series. Did Abner Doubleday really invent baseball, or is that just a myth? Stosh decides to go back in time to and find out--with his mother! They land in the middle of a Civil War battlefield, where they will eventually meet up with Union general Abner Doubleday (after almost getting killed a few times). Stosh's mom, excited about the possibility of time travel, convinces Stosh to try and stop the Lincoln assassination. Don't worry, there's some baseball in here too. |
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45. The Million Dollar Strike (Hyperion, 2004)
The fourth book in the million dollar series (see #21, 35, and 40).
No, it's NOT baseball. It's about one of my favorite sports--bowling! One ball, one roll,
with a million dollars on the line. For all you kids who have been asking, this is the
first bowling horror novel. |
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44. The Get Rich Quick Club (HarperCollins, 2004)
A group of five kids decide to devote their summer to making a fortune. They decide
to create a fake photograph of a UFO and sell it to the tabloids. One thing leads to
another and...oh, you'll have to read it for yourself to find out what happens. |
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43. Babe Ruth and the Ice Cream Mess (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
While researching “Babe & Me,” I came across an anecdote
about seven-year-old
Babe Ruth stealing a dollar from his dad and using it to buy ice cream for all the
kids on his street. I thought it summed up Ruth's personality--always generous and
sometimes thoughtless. This is a picture book for beginning readers, with nice
illustrations by Elaine Garvin. |
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42. Race For The Sky (Simon & Schuster, 2003)
One hundred years ago--on December 17, 1903--a human being lifted up off
the ground in an airplane for the first time. I read up on The Wright
Brothers and found that among the five witnesses to that first flight,
one of them was a child. His name was Johnny Moore, and he was a simple,
uneducated boy. This novel is a fake diary, telling the story of The
Wright Brothers through Johnny’s eyes. I spent more time working on this
book than anything I’ve ever written. |
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41. Mickey & Me (HarperCollins,
2003)
The fifth book in my baseball card adventure series. Stosh THINKS he
will be going on an adventure with Mickey Mantle. But he’s in for a big
surprise. The surprise is...oh, go read the book and find out for
yourself. As usual, Stosh will encounter the unexpected, be humiliated,
almost get killed, and learn a valuable life lesson. |
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40. The Million Dollar Goal (Hyperion, 2003)
This is the third book in my “million dollar” series (see #21 and #35). This time the sport is hockey. Two main characters tell the story--a twin brother and sister. They're Canadian, and their foul-mouthed, flatulent, Elvis-loving grandmother plays a big part in the story. |
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39. Shoeless Joe & Me (HarperCollins,
2002)
The fourth book in my baseball card adventure
series. This time, Stosh travels back in time to 1919 in an effort to prevent
the Black Sox Scandal and save the reputation of the great Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Along the way, he meets a long lost relative and is hunted down by murderous gangsters.
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38.
Back in Time with Benjamin Franklin
(Simon & Schuster, 2002)
The sequel to Back in Time with Thomas Edison (#37). With the help of The Anytime Anywhere Machine, Qwerty and his friend do a “time suck” to
bring Benjamin Franklin to the present day. Then they accompany him on a trip to Philadelphia on July 4th, 1776, where the increasingly insane Ashley Quadrel attempts to steal the Declaration of Independence and stop the American Revolution. |
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37.
Back in Time with Thomas Edison
(Simon & Schuster, 2001)
I grew up a few miles from Thomas Edison’s old laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey.
It is a museum today. I’ve always admired and been intrigued by the great inventor.
Edison patented over a thousand inventions in his life. I started thinking: What if
he had created a secret invention that was so revolutionary that he didn’t feel the world
was ready for it? What if he buried it in his backyard and never told anyone about it?
And what if some kid was digging in his garden and found this incredible machine 120
years later?
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36. The Secret Life of Dr. Demented (Pocket Books, 2001)
Okay, I admit it. I LIKE professional wrestling. I like the way we all
know it’s staged, but nobody cares. I thought: What if a kid lived down
the block from a professional wrestler? What if the wrestler was a real
lunatic in the ring, but a regular, puppy dog, suburban guy the rest of
the time? What might happen?
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35. The Million Dollar Kick (Hyperion, 2001)
This soccer story is my first book in which the main character is a GIRL.
When The Million Dollar Shot (#21) came out, my editor Donna Bray suggested I write a sequel. But I thought that using the same characters for ANOTHER million dollar shot (or field goal, or kick, or strike, or whatever) would make a lame sequel. And I hate lame sequels. Then Donna tossed out the idea of starting from scratch and making up a story with all NEW characters. Aha! A world of possibilities opened up.
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34.
Johnny Hangtime
(HarperCollins, 2000)
Kids often ask me which is my best book. I think this may be it. It's a story about a kid
who is a Hollywood stuntman. He's always jumping out of windows, setting himself on fire, etc. Johnny stunt doubles for Ricky Corvette, a loathsome movie star. Also featured in the book are teenage supermodel Augusta Wind and action flick director Roland Rivers. |
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33. Babe & Me (HarperCollins, 2000)
If you liked “Honus & Me” (#20) and “Jackie & Me” (#25), you'll love this. Joe time-travels back to 1932 to see with his own eyes whether or not Babe Ruth really called his shot in Game 3 of the World Series.
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32. Landslide! A Kid's Guide to the U.S. Elections
(Simon & Schuster, 2000)
My first non-fiction book in a long time. It includes dozens of questions about how America elects its president, followed by the answers to those questions.
31. Jackie Robinson (Aladdin, 1999)
The author's name on the cover of this book (and on “Joe DiMaggio” below) is “Herb Dunn.” Herb Dunn has been a friend of mine since college. I used a pen name because “Jackie Robinson” came out at the same time as “Jackie & Me” (#25) and I didn't want the two books to be confused. (If you look closely, you'll see minor characters named Herb Dunn sprinkled around many of my books.)
30. Joe DiMaggio
(Aladdin, 1999)
When I was a kid, the first books I enjoyed reading were the “Childhood of Famous Americans” series. That series is still being published, and I had the opportunity to write their biographies of Jackie Robinson (above) and Joe DiMaggio.
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29. The Kid Who Became President
(Scholastic, 1999)
Sequel to “The Kid Who Ran For President” (#15). Judson Moon, now 13 years old, decides
to accept the presidency after all. This novel covers his first year in office.
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26-28. Funny Boy series (Hyperion, 1999-2000)
This is the silliest thing I ever wrote, and people tend to love it or hate it. Funny Boy is three books about a young superhero who has no super powers but uses his sense of humor to defeat bad guys. They're in alphabetical order: Funny Boy Meets the Airsick Alien from Andromeda, Funny Boy Versus the Bubble Brained Barbers from the Big Bang, and Funny Boy Meets the Chit-Chatting Cheese from Chattanooga. I was going to take it all the way to Z (Funny Boy Meets the Zany Zamboni Driver from another Zip Code) but the series bombed and the publisher said "STOP!"
25. Jackie & Me (HarperCollins, 1999)
Sequel to
“Honus & Me” (#20). This time Joe gets a Jackie Robinson baseball card and time travels back to 1947 to go on an adventure with Robinson during his rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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24. Cal Ripken, Jr.: My Story (Dial, 1999)
This is a young reader's version of Ripken's autobiography, “The Only Way I Know.” I had nothing to do with the original book, but was asked to adapt it for kids. Nope, I didn't get to meet Cal.
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23. Virtually Perfect (Hyperion, 1998)
I was supposed to write a non-fiction book about special effects in the movies, but the book fell through. Rather than waste the
months I had spent on research, I invented this story about a son of a special effects wizard who creates a
“vactor” - or virtual actor - on a computer. The boy gives the vactor so much intelligence that it figures out how to come through the screen to exist in the real world like a regular kid.
This is one of my favorite books.
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22. Katy's Gift (Running Press, 1998)
My first picture book, for younger readers. It's a story about two Amish children. It was originally written by illustrator Keith Bowen. The publisher called me and asked me to do some work on it.
21. The Million Dollar Shot (Hyperion, 1997)
You know those basketball contests where they give a fan the chance to sink a three point shot or half court shot and win money?
That gave me the idea for this novel, about a boy who wins a poetry contest and gets the chance to take a foul shot in the middle of the NBA finals and win a million dollars. To make it real, I consulted with Dr. Tom
Amberry, who sank 2,750 foul shots without a miss.
Many kids have told me this is my best book.
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20. Honus & Me (HarperCollins, 1997)
While cleaning out an old lady's attic, a boy finds the most valuable baseball card in the world - the 1909 Honus Wagner T-206. He also discovers he has the power to travel through time, using baseball cards as his time machine. So he goes back to 1909 and has an adventure with the great Honus Wagner. To find out more about Honus & Me, click on REJECTION LETTERS.
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16-19.  Tales From The Sandlot Series (Scholastic, 1997)
I was sick in bed one day, and sketched out the plot for a novel about a kid who gets hit in the head with a baseball and wakes up to discover he has ESP.It became The Shortstop Who Knew Too Much. That was followed by three more Little League stories in which weird, paranormal things occur:
- The Green Monster in Left Field
- The Catcher Who Shocked the World
- The Pitcher Who Went Out of His Mind
I'm proud of this series, but it was not successful and has been discontinued.
15. The Kid Who Ran For President (Scholastic, 1996)
Before the 1996 presidential election, there was quite a bit of debate about whether Bob Dole might be too old to be President. That got me thinking - what would be too YOUNG to be President? And that's what gave me the idea for this novel about a 12-year-old boy who runs for President. This was the first time I tried to write something funny. It is my most
successful book.
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14. The Way Baseball Works (Simon & Schuster, 1996)
This is a gift book, a “coffee table” book. The game of baseball is broken into about 100 essential elements and each one is explained in words and pictures. I didn't think this book was nearly as good as my other adult baseball books, but people always are very impressed when they see it. It
must be the color photos and charts. Adult book. Sales-wise, it was a
bomb.
13. Gymnastics (Viking Children's Books, 1996)
After I completed Ice Skating (below), my editor, Elizabeth Law, suggested I write a similar book about gymnastics. I got to interview Amanda Borden, one of America's “Magnificent 7.”
12. Ice Skating (Viking Children's Books, 1995)
Figure skating suddenly became a huge sport after the attack on Nancy Kerrigan on January 6, 1994. I saw that there were hardly any books on the subject, so I decided to write one. I was also interested in writing a book that might appeal more to girls than to boys. This is an everything-you-always-wanted-to-know kind of book about the sport. I got to interview Tara Lipinski, who was a nobody at the time but went on to become
Olympic Champion.
11. Taking Flight (Viking Children's Books, 1995)
I saw an article in The New York Times about a 12-year-old Pennsylvania girl named Vicki Van Meter who was about to pilot a plane across the Atlantic Ocean. It sounded like an inspirational story for kids, so I called Vicki up and suggested we write a book about her flying. This was very fun and different for me.
Unfortunately, the book didn't sell and is out of print.
10. They Came From Centerfield (Scholastic, 1995)
Before 1995, I was a non-fiction writer and never thought I would be capable of creating a story. But I decided to give fiction a try, and this is my first effort. I wanted to do something like Matt Christopher, but wackier. So I had aliens visit Earth and threaten to destroy our planet unless a
group of kids taught them how to play baseball. I never thought this book was very good, but third grade kids just love it. |
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9. Banana Bats & Ding-Dong Balls (Macmillan, 1995)
A history of baseball inventions, from the catcher's mask and the pitching machine to aluminum bats and radar guns. Illustrated with great photos and original inventor patent drawings. This is one of my favorite books I've written, and my absolute WORST seller. It was out of print by
1997. I only have a couple of copies. Adult book.
8. World Series Classics (Viking Children's Books, 1994)
The five greatest World Series' ever played (1912, 1924, 1947, 1975, and 1991) described in play-by-play as if you were sitting in a box seat watching. I wasn't that happy with the book because I felt it was too much to ask the reader to sit through seven baseball games, even if they were exciting games.
7. Baseball's Greatest Games (Viking Children's Books, 1994)
The nine greatest games in baseball history, described in play-by-play. It would have been ten, but I was told the book was too long. This is my best non-fiction baseball book for kids, I think.
6. Baseball's Biggest Bloopers (Viking Children's Books, 1993)
The 12 most dramatic mistakes made in baseball history -- the first in 1908 and the last in 1991. This was my first children's book.
5. Baseball Babylon (Penguin, 1992)
This is a history of scandals in baseball. I thought it was a great book, but it didn't sell, even though I promoted it on The Joan Rivers Show, Entertainment Tonight, and in hundreds of radio interviews. I'll never know why. Adult book.
It's out of print now, and I only have a couple of copies.
4. SuperMemory (Rodale, 1991)
A psychologist, Dr. Douglas J. Herrmann, wrote this book about memory improvement. I was hired to rewrite it and make it more readable, more lively. It was a fun project. Out of print now. Adult book.
3. It Ain't Cheatin' If You Don't Get Caught (Penguin, 1990)
My first baseball book, and my first book with a major publisher. I had written an article for “Discover” magazine about the science behind the spitball, scuffball, corked bat, etc. I was able to sell the idea as a book to Penguin and spent nearly a year writing it. I got to meet Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield, Brooks Robinson, Bob Feller, Mike Schmidt, and other baseball greats. The book sold pretty well, which prompted Penguin to ask me for an idea for another baseball book (Baseball Babylon). It Ain't Cheatin'... is out of print now, but I bought the last 500 copies if you want one. I hated the title, by the way. Adult book.
2. I Didn't Know You Could Do THAT With A Computer (Compute Books, 1986)
Yes, I used to write about computers. I was very proud of this book. I wrote it because there was a misconception in the mid-1980s that computers were only useful for word processing and number crunching. The book described hundreds of software programs that would help people write their own will, trace their family roots, learn to speedread, learn a new language, chart their horoscope, and so on. Adult book. Very hard to find. I only have a couple of copies myself.
1. The Greatest Games (Compute Books, 1985)
My first book. I had set a goal to publish a book by the time I turned 30, and this came out around my 30th birthday. I co-wrote it with Shay Addams when we were editors together on the magazine “Computer Games.” The book basically described the greatest computer games up until 1985. It's out of date, and out of print. A real collector's item! Adult book.
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