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Welcome to Sherman's World!
About the Author
Volunteer Firefighter
My background in the fire service (22 years) gave me the idea to write "Finding Courage" - a story about a mouse spending a winter in a firehouse and finding a friend in Gus, a grasshopper. "Finding Courage" blends fire safety tips with Sherman's quest to become a firefighter and shows how even a small mouse with enough courage can save the day.
Mom and Grandma
Raising a family is challenging -- and raising young readers is especially difficult when you are competing against screens and television. I wrote these books to provide a simpler way for children to find entertainment and at the same time, learn about themselves and their natural world. I hope that even the reluctant reader will find Sherman and Gus funny and thoughtful and their adventures exciting enough to keep turning the pages.
History
New York and New England have many wonderful historical sites and stories of haunted houses and ghosts. "Finding Ghosts" combines history, humor, and drama when Sherman and Gus encounter a ghost who is a bully with a backstory that explains his nastiness. This book explores bullying and how Sherman learns to find a way to trust his instincts and give help without seeking a reward.
"Sherman’s World - Finding Courage"
This story follows Sherman, a young mouse, as he makes a winter home in a firehouse and meets Gus, a brash, downstate grasshopper. They become unlikely friends, and when Sherman starts a humorous training program to become a firefighter, Gus begins to worry.
Gus was right to worry because when spring arrives, Sherman's firefighting skills are tested not once but twice!
On one rainy weekend, Sherman finds that he is the only one who can rescue a smelly, wet cat stranded in a tree. Will he do it? How? And if he succeeds, will he live to tell the story?
Later, Sherman is in the wrong place at the right time when an injured firefighter needs help and other firefighters cannot find him. Will Sherman stay with the firefighter and make a rescue plan for both of them? What will he do? Will his plan work in time?
Humor, action and friendship move this story along in short chapters. Readers 8-10 (120 pages).
"Sherman's World - Finding Ghosts"
It's spring and time for Sherman and Gus to leave the firehouse and hike to Sherman's pine woods. After they encounter and escape a bully mouse named Rufus, the two friends find a new home near a meadow where they find an old, abandoned house. The house is inhabited by descendants of mice that came over from France at the time of the American Revolution. The house is also haunted by a ghost that is bigger and scarier than Rufus -- he throws fireballs to scare off intruders!
Sherman and Gus learn that the ghost is a French soldier who had an accident that prevented him from rejoining his family in France, and he's angry because he wants to go home. Not wanting to be alone, he has placed a hex on the house to keep the French mice inside.
In a deal where the ghost would lift the hex on the house, the two friends come up with a plan to get him to France. Will it work? Will the ghost keep his promise to them and remove the hex to free the French mice?
Humor, historical references, and action in short chapters. Readers 8-10 (140 pages)
Happy Summer! Happy Reading!
