Click here to browse our fantastic gallery of FREE or hugely discounted novels

Interview with Teko Bernard, author of The Hoop Kid From Elmdale Park

hoopkid_cover

image image

The Hoop Kid from Elmdale Park is a fun, upbeat story, with realistic characters, and fantastic humor. Bernard is a relatable character, and he’s a great true-to-life role model. Readers are sure to appreciate the basketball lingo, his love of the game, and his determination to fight the good fight.

Sounds great. Tell us more.
All Bernard wanted to do while staying with his grandparents in his father’s childhood hometown of Elmdale for the summer was work on his basketball skills. He’s especially motivated after buying a coveted high-tech G5 talking basketball off the internet specifically designed as a shooting coach. When Bernard excitedly enters a team into the Annual Elmdale Park Basketball Tournament, he’s shocked to discover that the future of the Park is at stake and dependent on his team winning the whole thing. The ruthless millionaire, Victor Franco, wants the Park shut down and turned into a city dump for his own personal gain.

Can the courageous Bernard and his fun and wacky crew defeat their Oakdale rivals and save the historic Park?

You still haven’t properly introduced Bernard to us. 
Bernard Jones is an intelligent, wide-eyed dreamer with a lot of heart and basketball skills to match. Despite being small for his age Bernard is a courageous natural born leader. Although sometimes his misguided confidence and stubborn determination get him into trouble. Bernard is also a voracious reader who likes to learn new things. He likes to day dream about traveling to exotic places around the world and frequently imagines playing basketball against his favorite basketball heroes while shooting hoops in his driveway.

What age group is this story aimed at?
Middle grade.

This book will appeal to boys and girls 8 and up who love the real-life excitement of sports, the imaginative fun of cartoons and the intensity of a good old-fashion rivalry.

Rivalry?
The book deals with themes of team-work, sportsmanship, competition and how to handle victory or defeat.

Have you written any other books?
This is our debut book for the Elmdale Park brand and book series.

The Elmdale brand? What’s that? Tell us about yourself.
Before creating and developing the Elmdale Park brand and Book series, I spent over a decade crafting stories for brands as a creative director/graphic designer in the sportswear and sports event industries.

After an exciting career as a creative director/graphic designer, I set out to pursue my lifelong dream of creating an original kid’s entertainment brand/cartoon property, thus Elmdale Park was born. Elmdale Park produces a unique series of middle grade chapter books & activewear with plans for animation and game apps.

I live and work in Overland Park, KS, and collaborate with a team of seasoned writers, illustrators, editors and designers who also share the same passion for kids books, cartoons, sports and outdoor recreation. When I’m not designing or developing new story concepts for Elmdale Park, I’m usually reading, listening to music, enjoying the outdoors or being an amateur movie critic.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
www.hoopkidonline.com
www.elmdalepark.com

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
@thehoopkid
www.facebook.com/hoopkid

What’s next?
The next book we are currently developing for Elmdale Park Books is a departure from sports. This will be an exciting action adventure story with Bernard Jones who goes on a magical mystery-solving trip around the world.

Leave a Facebook, Google+ or Wordpress Comment

Loading Facebook Comments ...

Leave a Reply