MCBD: A Review of The Little Linebacker - A Story of Determination by Stephen Tulloch and Maria Dismondy

TITLE: The Little Linebacker
AUTHORS: Stephen Tulloch and Maria Dismondy
ILLUSTRATOR: Heather Heyworth
PUBLISHER: Cardinal Rule Press, an imprint
of Maria Dismondy, Inc. 
PUBLICATION DATE: 2016

REVIEW BY: Lynne Marie

SNIPPET: As if his mom knew what he was thinking, she smiled and said, "Dream bigger dreams, Stephen." Tomorrow would be a big day. Stephen would go to his first Little League Football practice. 

What is not apparent from this adorable cover art (as I am not a full-time football fan) is that this story is based upon a TRUE story of struggle and determination. One of the authors is also the main character, which is interesting! However, I had been wondering why, in contrast to most fiction picture books which occur over a short period of time, the story paced itself by saying: A few years later, To be fair, it might have made more sense had I read the "Before reading, during reading and after reading" section on the the reverse of the title page, but when reviewing a book I always primarily avoid anything that will stack the deck in one way or another and let the story stand for itself.

Once I made it into the end zone of the book, it all made sense and I was glad to have followed "the Little Linebacker" Stephen Tulloch on his fantastic journey which began with a daydream and ended up a dream come true. Definitely inspiring, with art by Heather Heyworth that will capture the attention of little ones, a reminder that "slow and steady wins the race," and an important emphasis on doing well in school, .

NOTE: The opinions reflected herein are my own.
REVIEW COPY: Provided by Maria Dismondy, Inc.

ABOUT MULTI-CULTURAL CHILDREN'S BOOK DAY: 

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is its fourth year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness on the ongoing need to include kid’s books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators. 

Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day holiday, the MCBD Team are on a mission to change all of that.

Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2017 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board. Platinum Sponsors include Scholastic, Barefoot Books and Broccoli. Other Medallion Level Sponsors include heavy-hitters like Author Carole P. Roman, Audrey Press, Candlewick Press,  Fathers Incorporated, KidLitTV, Capstone Young Readers, ChildsPlayUsa, Author Gayle Swift, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee& Low Books, The Pack-n-Go Girls, Live Oak Media, Author Charlotte Riggle, Chronicle Books and Pomelo Books

Author Sponsor include: Karen Leggett Abouraya, Veronica Appleton, Susan Bernardo, Kathleen Burkinshaw, Maria Dismondy, D.G. Driver, Geoff Griffin,  Savannah Hendricks, Stephen Hodges, Carmen Bernier-Grand,Vahid Imani, Gwen Jackson,  Hena, Kahn, David Kelly, Mariana Llanos, Natasha Moulton-Levy, Teddy O'Malley, Stacy McAnulty,  Cerece Murphy, Miranda Paul, Annette Pimentel, Greg Ransom, Sandra Richards, Elsa Takaoka, Graciela Tiscareño-Sato,  Sarah Stevenson, Monica Mathis-Stowe SmartChoiceNation, Andrea Y. Wang

We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also work tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.

MCBD Links to remember:

MCBD site: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/

Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: http://bit.ly/1kGZrta

Free Kindness Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teachers-classroom-kindness-kit/

Free Diversity Book Lists and Activities for Teachers and Parents: http://bit.ly/1sZ5s8i