Consider Your Heroes

Perhaps now more than ever, it's important to choose role models kids can look up to. Is it because we know more now about our heroes than we ever did? Is it the culture, the ability to read everything anybody does, good and bad?

Not that writers haven't always tried to hold up good examples! 
I started writing THE WAY TO STAY IN DESTINY over ten years ago. The seed of an idea for that book came from a childhood experience --one degree of separation from a baseball hero. But that hero had taken a big fall since my childhood memory. And an editor who read the manuscript (and rejected it with a lot of nice comments) suggested "my" baseball player might not be the best hero for the kids of Destiny, Florida.

I'd lived in Atlanta when I was a young librarian just beginning my career. I knew Hank Aaron was a hero. It was an easy switch.

So choose your heroes carefully, writers. If you're placing a character on a pedestal, be sure he or she deserves it.

There are a lot of interesting stories out there about Hank Aaron. He doesn't mind speaking up about things he believes to be wrong. 
Here's his take on the recent cheating scandals in baseball. 
He started a foundation that has helped so many kids.
He's an all-around good guy. 
A perfect book character. 
Somebody kids should remember.

My buddy Eileen, who still lives in Atlanta and follows the news, shared this resource via her local TV station and a Facebook page., on the occasion of Aaron's 86th February birthday. 
(Photos and a letter from the president via the John F. Kennedy Library.)

This is the kind of sports hero our kids need to know about.