The Sixteenth Street Chronicles

Here, Missouri Hall of Famer and sports educator Jim Aziere has crafted a remarkable true story, a classically American story, about an essential part of his youthful struggles and our own, featuring a one-of-a-kind Kansas City parochial high school called De La Salle Academy that flourished in the years between wars--1941-1959--a time of great social strife in our city. It's an eye-opening tale of the seismic shifts in America in the 1960s, about a unique group of Christian educators who managed to integrate a high school before Brown v. Board of Education--but could not keep the dream alive beyond Watergate. You're sure to find Jim's story about his years at De La Salle--where he was first a student and later faculty--highly affecting and personal as he recounts his many life lessons, survives a learning disability, and uses athletic skill and determination to excel despite everything. It's bound to touch and inspire anyone who's ever felt more at home on AstroTurf than in a classroom.Michael Pritchett, Author of The Melancholy Fate of Capt. Lewis (Unbridled Books)

-- Jim Aziere