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WEST SACRAMENTO, CA—Booklocker.com has recently published the novel “Bethany Park” (ISBN: 1601450095), the story of how a seventh grade boy is inspired by Sports Illustrated articles about sprinter Dr. Delano Meriwether to run track himself.
Dr. Meriwether was the first black student at Duke Medical School, and while working at the Baltimore Cancer Research Center he began running races as a hobby. By the spring of 1971 Dr. Meriwether was one of the nation’s top sprinters, and Sports Illustrated coverage of his exploits inspired a scientifically precocious but athletically challenged Eddie Stone to try out for his school’s track team.
Written by Glen Sharp, “Bethany Park,” shares Eddie’s adventures with a cast of friends including Martin, ersatz inventor and designer of an electric chair; Father Tom, the local Episcopalian priest with an interest in quantum mechanics; Charles, the track star who takes Eddie’s lunch money; and his best friend Betty, who doubles as his bodyguard.
Set in 1971 Rantoul, Illinois, “Bethany Park” is a humorously nostalgic tale in which a sardonic and at times self-deprecating Eddie desires to be an athlete because he wants to adhere to the Boy Scout Oath of keeping himself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight—and also because he knows that girls aren’t interested in boys “who play with their microscopes all day.”
Readers have described “Bethany Park” as a laugh out loud page turner that is both well developed and realistic. Sharp’s writing has been compared to that of humorist Jean Shepherd, best known for his movie, “A Christmas Story.”
The book is available through Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, as well as through Booklocker.com. It is also available as an e-book through the publisher.
For more information about “Bethany Park” visit www.booklocker.com.
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