‘Maggie’ will be presented to the top female pole-vaulters at the Texas River Vault Championships in San Marcos Texas.
Didya hear the BIG news? Maggie is headed to Texas!
The gutsy farm girl from Grain Valley, Kan., will be ridin’ high atop the awards stand Saturday, June 15th, at the Texas River Vault Championship.
As many as 300 vaulters are expected to compete in one of the biggest pole-vault festivals in the nation — an event so Texas-sized that it includes seven categories just for female vaulters!
A copy of the inspirational sports novel, Maggie Vaults Over the Moon will be presented the top female finishers.
The beautiful San Marcos River is the setting for the Texas River Vault Championship.
“Of all the great things that have happened to Maggie, this is one of the best so far,” said author Grant Overstake. “She’s humbled and honored and a little bit nervous about a trip down to Texas, because, as they say, San Marcos is a fur piece from Grain Valley.” Continue Reading →
Author Grant Overstake reads from ‘Maggie Vaults Over the Moon’ April 11th, 2013, at Watermark Books in Wichita. (Photo by Carl Williams)
An overflow crowd of nearly 70 Maggie Steele fans gathered at Watermark Books & Cafe Thursday night, April 11th, to hear Grant Overstake read from his new sports novel, Maggie Vaults Over the Moon.
Author Grant Overstake reads from ‘Maggie Vaults Over the Moon’. (Photo by Carl Williams)
It was an overwhelming show of support for the gutsy teen from Grain Valley, Kansas, whose compelling story of courage and triumph is capturing the hearts of readers young and old.
“Words can’t express how great it was to see so many people at this event,” said Overstake, a Wichita native. “I saw some people I hadn’t seen since third grade and met many new friends. To experience a reading and book signing event at Watermark was one of the highlights of my life. To see them putting out more chairs to seat all the people, well, it was just awesome.” Continue Reading →
“It’s one of the most pure and wholesome young adult books I’ve ever read.” — Shannon Clark
Thanks to Shannon Clark of I Run Read Teach for an Awesome Review:
You know that saying — “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Well, it applies to this book. Most definitely! Grant Overstake, the author, contacted me about reading his book and reviewing it on my blog. I am so glad I did.
English teacher and Coach Shannon Clark is also a Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador, promoting health, life and fitness for girls of all ages.
It’s a young adult book that’s appropriate for young adults as well as 4th and up. When do you ever find a young adult book like that? Some words that would best describe it would be- PURE, WHOLESOME, GENUINE -those can also describe Maggie, the main character.
Not an inappropriate word throughout the entire book. No inappropriate content either. I mean that’s a hard find in today’s world! It’s one of the most pure and wholesome young adult books I’ve ever read.Continue Reading →
Kansas High School State Champion Taylor Marie Swanson felt herself soaring to a gold medal again reading “Maggie Vaults Over the Moon.”
If you feel yourself taking flight with heroine Maggie Steele as she pole-vaults over the moon, don’t be surprised.
Many readers of the new teen novel Maggie Vaults Over the Moon have actually felt the physical sensation of vaulting higher and higher – and a new study explains why.
According to the article, “Your Brain on Fiction”, something amazing happens to our brain when we simply read about fictional characters doing exciting and dramatic things. Our brain responds like we’re really doing those things ourselves. The study shows that when Maggie takes flight, readers do, too.
Writing for The New York Times, Annie Murphy Paul reports that, while many people today are fixated with digital devices and spending most of their free time on Facebook or Twitter, new evidence shows we could all benefit from putting away our smart phones and reading good fiction.
According to the story, scientists have come to realize that, to the brain, a fictional account can seem even more real than the real world: Continue Reading →
The new teen sports novel “Maggie Vaults Over the Moon” vividly depicts the challenges and joys of a girl living on a family farm in rural Kansas.
WICHITA, Kan. – A former rural newspaper editor and sports writer has drawn upon his coverage of sporting events and country life to create a new teen sports novel, which is harvesting praise for its realistic view of life on a Kansas family farm.
Author Grant Overstake says his years spent as a journalist embedded in Kansas wheat country helped him create a vivid setting for the story, Maggie Vaults Over the Moon, in which a high school senior named Maggie Steele struggles with the same difficult decision faced by many of today’s rural teens — pursue the life of her dreams or stay home to save the multigenerational family farm.
“As the only surviving child, Maggie has many factors to consider about a possible future on the farm,” Overstake said. “Of course, readers will have to read the story to follow her journey of self-discovery, and to see which path she chooses to take.”
As editor of the Hillsboro Star-Journal, Overstake was a two-time winner of the Kansas Farm Bureau’s Golden Wheat Award for excellence in agriculture writing. The author places his story near the fictional town of Grain Valley, Kan., which, in real life, could be anyplace where sports still matter and the grain elevator is the busiest place in town, especially at harvest time.
The new book, released in mid-October, has already earned several five-star reviews from readers on Amazon.com, including one that reads, “Getting to know Maggie Steele, her family, and the whole warm and caring community of Grain Valley was a pure delight…” Continue Reading →
Maggie Steele, the heroine in the new sports novel, Maggie Vaults Over the Moon, faces many obstacles in her attempt to overcome tragedy and hardship on her tiny Kansas farm. One of her biggest challenges is overcoming the gender bias of local townspeople, clergy, and school board members, who seem to be living in a time warp some 40 years in the past — before Title IX guaranteed girls the right to have equal access to sports.
The soon-to-be released young adult novel, written by Grant Overstake, captures the struggle of a teenager overwhelmed by grief and uncertain about her future. Despite powerful opposition, she finds her destiny through the sport of pole-vaulting, a track and field event that was once considered too dangerous and therefore inappropriate for girls.
Over the past decade, hundreds of girls have taken up the sport of pole-vaulting, finding within themselves the courage to overcome the highest obstacles. The National Federation of State High School Associations doesn’t have a specific number of high school girls’ pole vaulters in the United States, but Greg Hull, who works with the NFHS as a track and field/pole vaulting consultant, estimates the number at around 15,000. Continue Reading →
Christine Brennan (born May 14, 1958, in Toledo, Ohio) is an American sports columnist, TV and radio commentator, best-selling author, and nationally-known speaker. She is especially known for her coverage of the Olympics and has written three books on the subject of figure skating: the best-selling Inside Edge (1996), Edge of Glory (1998), and Champions on Ice (2002).
Brennan received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Journalism from Northwestern University in 1980 and 1981, respectively. She started her career as the first female sports reporter for the Miami Herald in 1981 before moving to the Washington Post in 1984. There, she became the first woman to cover the Washington Redskins. In 1988, Brennan was elected the first president of the Association for Women in Sports Media. A longtime advocate for women in sports journalism, she started a scholarship-internship program for female journalism students that now honors six to seven students annually. Two of the scholarships are named after her late parents.
Brennan now is an award-winning sports columnist for USA Today, an on-air commentator for ABC News, CNN, NPR, and Fox Sports radio and the author of seven books, including the national best-seller Inside Edge. Brennan has covered the last 14 Olympic Games, Winter and Summer, beginning with the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Continue Reading →
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