Welcome to my Blog! I’m very excited to have you on board! Central Park Story is a young adult adventure series whose main character is a sixteen-year-old boy named Christopher Middleton. It’s also a treasure hunt/romance/historical adventure/fantasy/humorous tale all rolled into one! I put a lot of time researching the backdrop to the series which […]
I spent several years researching Central Park for my ongoing young adult adventure series, Central Park Story, and, in the process, I came across a number of features of the park that surprised and, in some cases, shocked me. Here are a few of them, and I’d be most curious to know if you were […]
If there’s a statue in Central Park that could send a shiver down your spine, it’s the statue of Daniel Webster; not because of its impressive size but because the sculptor, Thomas Ball, managed to capture ‘God-like Dan’ in all his glory. Back in the 1850s, most everyone had two things in their homes: a […]
Taking exams isn’t fun, but it’s fun making fun of exam-taking. In my young adult adventure series, Central Park Story, the main character, Christopher Middleton, doesn’t open a book when it comes to studying for exams. Rather, he relies on what his girlfriend tells him on their early morning walks to school…with amusing results. I […]
More than 100 years ago, Dr. Maria Montessori, Italy’s first female physician, inspired the birth of a worldwide educational movement. Drawing upon her scientific background and clinical understanding, Dr. Montessori observed how young people learn best when engaged in purposeful activity rather than being fed information. She recognized that children’s cognitive growth and development requires […]
Walden, a book by by noted Transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau, is part personal declaration of independence, part social experiment, and part manual for self-reliance. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau’s experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. By immersing […]
You probably think you’ve seen it all when it comes to New York, but New Yorkers like to have the last word on every subject–skateboarding being no exception. In the pic to the right, a well-heeled New Yorker takes a ride on a board in Central Park well before skateboarding became ‘cool’. And, in case […]
In order to get a high ranking for a private school these days, you need to offer a low student-to-faculty ratio, a challenging curriculum, and an excellent reputation for college prep. You could say the same about colleges and grad school rankings. Add to this the more general principle that input equals output, meaning if […]
Today, there are two skating rinks in Central Park, one in the north end and one in the south, but there used to be only one in the middle . . . the Ramble Lake. When the park was first opened to the public in the late 1860’s, skating was a popular sport and brought […]
If you happen to be like Ashley Ferguson, one of the characters in my young adult adventure series, Central Park Story, you have a choice of which resort to visit over winter vacation. However, when it comes to skiing the choices narrow considerably, and you are forced to make the difficult decision between Aspen and […]
In Book One of my young adult adventure series, Central Park Story, Christopher Middleton, the main character, mentions that it took more gunpowder than was used in the Battle of Gettysburg to construct Central Park. I also have one of the statues (yes, the statues talk in my books) compare Christopher’s personal challenges to the […]
