Dreaming of honor and glory when he leaves home to fight the Yankees with his father, Willie Delamer is completely unprepared for the harsh realities of war and the tragedy that hits his family. Reprint. SLJ.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Growing up, Jerry Spinelli was really serious about baseball. He played for the Green Sox Little League team in his hometown of Norristown, Pennsylvania, and dreamed of one day playing for the major leagues, preferably as shortstop for the New York Yankees.
One night during high school, Spinelli watched the football team win an exciting game against one of the best teams in the country. While everyone else rode about town tooting horns in celebration, Spinelli went home and wrote "Goal to Go," a poem about the game's defining moment, a goal-line stand. His father submitted the poem to the Norristown Times-Herald and it was featured in the middle of the sports page a few days later. He then traded in his baseball bat for a pencil, because he knew that he wanted to become a writer.
After graduating from Gettysburg College with an English degree, Spinelli worked full time as a magazine editor. Every day on his lunch hour, he would close his office door and craft novels on yellow magazine copy paper. He wrote four adult novels in 12 years of lunchtime writing, but none of these were accepted for publication. When he submitted a fifth novel about a 13-year-old boy, adult publishers once again rejected his work, but children's publishers embraced it. Spinelli feels that he accidentally became an author of children's books.
Spinelli's hilarious books entertain both children and young adults. Readers see his life in his autobiography Knots in My Yo-Yo String, as well as in his fiction. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved Penn Relays of his home state of Pennsylvania in a book, while Maniac Magee is set in a fictional town based on his own hometown.
When asked if he does research for his writing, Spinelli says: "The answer is yes and no. No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material. Yes, in the sense that the first 15 years of my life turned out to be one big research project. I thought I was simply growing up in Norristown, Pennsylvania; looking back now I can see that I was also gathering material that would one day find its way into my books."
On inspiration, the author says: "Ideas come from ordinary, everyday life. And from imagination. And from feelings. And from memories. Memories of dust in my sneakers and humming whitewalls down a hill called Monkey."
Spinelli lives with his wife and fellow writer, Eileen, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. While they write in separate rooms of the house, the couple edits and celebrates one another's work. Their six children have given Jerry Spinelli a plethora of clever material for his writing.
One night during high school, Spinelli watched the football team win an exciting game against one of the best teams in the country. While everyone else rode about town tooting horns in celebration, Spinelli went home and wrote "Goal to Go," a poem about the game's defining moment, a goal-line stand. His father submitted the poem to the Norristown Times-Herald and it was featured in the middle of the sports page a few days later. He then traded in his baseball bat for a pencil, because he knew that he wanted to become a writer.
After graduating from Gettysburg College with an English degree, Spinelli worked full time as a magazine editor. Every day on his lunch hour, he would close his office door and craft novels on yellow magazine copy paper. He wrote four adult novels in 12 years of lunchtime writing, but none of these were accepted for publication. When he submitted a fifth novel about a 13-year-old boy, adult publishers once again rejected his work, but children's publishers embraced it. Spinelli feels that he accidentally became an author of children's books.
Spinelli's hilarious books entertain both children and young adults. Readers see his life in his autobiography Knots in My Yo-Yo String, as well as in his fiction. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved Penn Relays of his home state of Pennsylvania in a book, while Maniac Magee is set in a fictional town based on his own hometown.
When asked if he does research for his writing, Spinelli says: "The answer is yes and no. No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material. Yes, in the sense that the first 15 years of my life turned out to be one big research project. I thought I was simply growing up in Norristown, Pennsylvania; looking back now I can see that I was also gathering material that would one day find its way into my books."
On inspiration, the author says: "Ideas come from ordinary, everyday life. And from imagination. And from feelings. And from memories. Memories of dust in my sneakers and humming whitewalls down a hill called Monkey."
Spinelli lives with his wife and fellow writer, Eileen, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. While they write in separate rooms of the house, the couple edits and celebrates one another's work. Their six children have given Jerry Spinelli a plethora of clever material for his writing.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Glory on the Banks,
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Thunder on the Tennessee: 2 (Hardcover)
Thunder on the TennesseeBy: G. Clifton Wisler The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles. Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family. The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie house, and the banks of Tennessee river. The theme was all about the Civil War. I loved this book. It thought me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also thought me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Real Civil War Book,
This review is from: Thunder on the Tennessee (Hardcover)
This is one of the books that pulled me into the American Civil War. It shows how terrible the war was from the eyes of Willie Delamer who joins the Confederate army after his father who is a colonel. The battles are told in great detail and understand it as if you were in the battle field yourself. It also shows how people used to enlist the army laughing and than the change of mood after thier first experience in a battle. I recommend this book to everyone who is intersested in civil war or would like to know about it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Glory in Tennessee,
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Thunder on the Tennessee: 2 (Hardcover)
Thunder on the TennesseeBy: G. Clifton Wisler The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles. Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family. The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie house, and the banks of Tennessee river. The theme was all about the Civil War. I loved this book. It taught me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also taught me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
