Hiero. Hello and good morning, Terry. How are you doing. Hi,
I'm good. Thank you. I'll tell you I'm so blessed to have
the opportunity to talk with you, because you have this way of getting inside
the imaginations of all readers, not just why A readers, but all readers.
And I almost feel like that every book that you release has got to
come with one of those Batman kind of announcers, like, Meanwhile, Anthony
and Leah face more surprises and obstacles and Lee and Terry has the story.
I love that. I mean really, I mean Anthony and Leah really they're
they're they're like the odd couple, but yet I love them together. They
are every Ying and Yang. I mean they are so perfect together. Yeah,
yeah, thank you. I actually did a blog post that alluded to
Ying and Yang, so I appreciate that to do this though, I mean
because I mean, first of all, it's it's very odd that they would
come together, but yet but they do, and it's it's it's an unexpected
frame. And we like stories like that because it makes us want to look
around us to see if if there's something like this with us. Yeah.
Absolutely, I love unlikely friendships. I love writing about it. I love
experiencing it. I've had unlikely friendships in my life that always turn out great.
I have an unlikely friendship just within my own marriage, pretty opposite.
So it seems so I get that, and this particular Imyan Friends is so
up to date because you do add bullying to the storyline because you're keeping it
in the conversation. And I think that's where we need to be. We
need to have it in our stories so that we can keep it out here
in the real world and confront it. Yes, yes, absolutely, Yeah.
I've tackled different types of bullying and other books in this series, but
they tended to be more under the radar type of bullying incidents for even ghosting
or excluding things of that nature, or even sometimes cyberbullying a little bit.
But this is different. This is outright physical bulling, which unfortunately still occurs
in this day and age, and yeah, and we have to unfortunately learn
to deal with it or navigate it. So hopefully that's what this book helps
kids do. But see what happens is though, is that Anthony and Leah,
for listeners, they need to understand that they go together to dig into
this where most people would try to walk away from it and ignore it.
Oh it's not happening, But Anthony and Leah get into it. Yeah,
they do. They do, and that's kind of what makes the story because
Anthony, he's witnessing two of his basketball teammates doing the bulling, and so
that kind of catches him in the middle because he doesn't want to tell on
them, but yet he also wants to do the right thing. And then
Leah has had bullying in her life in the past, and so she has
another like kind of physical, visceral reaction to that. So the two of
them are sort of at odds, so it really kind of tests their friendship
and you get to see how this all plays out. There's a huge lesson
in this book, and I hope that readers really do listen to it because
I know what you know with with the bullying, that that that is something
they have in common. But when they do bring up that subject of what
do we have in common? Inside my mind as I read that, I
thought, you have each other, You have each other in common, that's
what needs to be focused on. I love that, Yes, that's absolutely
true you and it's it's great to have friends and rely on each other and
kind of navigate it together and hopefully ultimately that's what they learn. Yeah.
I can relate with Leah because you know, I was that person that was
very shy, didn't want to get out. I mean, I created a
radio station in my bedroom so I didn't have to go outside and play.
So I read. And I know that Lee and I are not the you
know, we're not the only ones that go through this, and so I
hope this sir as an open door. Thank you. I hope it does
too. And I'd like to just point out that even though it deals with
such a serious subject, all my books have so much humor in them,
so I hope, and so hopefully there's a good balance between the two,
between the seriousness and the humor, and hopefully that's what we'll keep kids and
their parents engaged. Yea, you and I have something in common. We
are proud members of the TPFW Too Popular for Words O tps OTPFW. Yes.
Yes, oh wow, Well this is a first for me. I
love it. Where can people go to find out more about you and give
you a lot of love because teachers need to know where your books are.
Sure, Oh my gosh, and how I appreciate teachers and librarians and booksellers.
I wouldn't be anywhere without them. So yeah, I always say,
if you can get to your local books store. I love indie bookstores,
but any local bookstore would be great. They should have copies of Always Anthony,
and if they don't, they should be able to order them without without
any problem. You could also go online and order them. I always say.
I have links to uh to two stores on my website as well,
so if you go to Terry Leevinson dot com you could even order it from
there. I can't wait to talk to you again in the future. Please
come back to this show anytime. I would love to thank you so much.
Will you'd be brilliant today. Thank you