Stat: Home Court and Stat: Double Team by Amar'e Stoudmire

I was catching up on last weeks The Daily Show with Jon Stewart when I was pleasantly surprised that he was going to do an interview about a children's book series.   One of the reasons I love watching Jon Stewart is because he interviews so many authors on his show.   Mostly he does political or history books and of course some celebrity books.   What always amazes me is that I really thinks he reads most of them.   Today's books are basically a celebrity book series.   I am not knocking this but just being up front about it.  I can't remember the last time Jon Stewart talked about a children's book.   What I liked about the interview was that Jon was really impressed with the books.   I am thinking he got the books for his son who is just the right age to be reading them.   It is so wonderful to see a guy really excited about books and that he is apparently trying to get his son to love them too.   I am not into basketball so I had never heard of this player.   After watching the interview I was very impressed and happy that he should use his celebrity to get kids to read.   Never a bad thing in my eyes.

Stat: Home Court and Stat: Double Team by Amar'e Stoudmire and illustrated by Tim Jessell is a new series for young readers ages 8-12.   Scholastic who publishes the series calls it "realistic fiction".   I like that.   It is the fictionalized account of Mr Stoudmire's childhood and how he discovered that playing basketball was his dream.  It is a great series for the reluctant boy reader who loves sports.   Anything to get a child to read is a positive thing in my mind.   I knew nothing about Amar'e Stoudmire before I saw his interview.  He is an all-star NBA player for the NY Knicks who wants to be a positive influence on children.  Here's hoping this influence brings a love of reading to children everywhere.