Meeting a "Celebrity"

On Saturday, I met the goal of meeting a "celebrity." I met Kurtis Scaletta author of Mudville at the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul.

Here's a pic, stolen from Kurtis's site, photographer unknown:
You can see CJ, David and me sitting on the steps.

Mudville is Kurtis's first published book. The book is targeted to Middle School kids. You can read all about it on Kurtis's site.

I read the book in a handful of hours and really liked it. Besides being about baseball and brothers, there are themes on race, alcoholism, and absent parents. The main characters have real world flaws and troubles, which I really liked. Kurtis does a good job giving the characters depth and their troubles relevant and real.

I feel honored to meet Kurtis and read his great book (my first of four this month and each month for the next six.)