We often read about famous leaders as adults, but who were they as children? They wore roller skates, played ice hockey, went fishing, and loved jokes. These delightfully playful books will inspire young readers by showing them that famous people in history were once goofy kids too.

Author Biography

Mark Weakland wears many hats. As an author, he's written books for teachers, including Super Core!: Turbocharging Your Basal Reading Program with More Reading, Writing, and Word Work, published by the International Reading Association. His book topics for children include sports, bacteria, comets, and poetry. Mark's also a reading specialist. He teaches kindergarten children, third graders, parents, and teachers. As a musician and songwriter, Mark sings, plays percussion, and strums the guitar. Many of his songs, including "I Sure Love Pancakes" and "The Dooflicky Machine," have won national awards and contests. Mark lives in Western Pennsylvania. Jeffrey Ebbeler has been creating art for children for almost a decade. He loves the creative potential of storybook art. He has given many lectures and demonstrations in grade-schools, colleges, and museums about the process of bringing words to life through pictures. He has worked on a variety of projects including illustrations for magazines, CD covers, and book covers as well as paper engineering for pop-up books, creating large scale murals for schools and churches, and sculpting puppets and preforming for several marionette theaters. He and his wife Eileen both attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati. They currently live in Cincinnati with their twin daughters Olivia and Isabel. Jeffrey signed with artist agent Portfolio Solutions LLC. This has been a successful partnership and has allowed Jeffrey to leave his long held position as an art director for the children's book department at Publication's International ltd. to work as a freelance illustrator full time.