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Inside Peek

WELCOME TO MYTHICALLY REAL DEGRAFF, OHIO

Rickie lives in the small town of DeGraff, Ohio, population 900, one of those barely visible towns travelers pass through but seldom notice. With its unique blend of quirky characters, DeGraff is the only world Rickie knows.

The most prominent influence on Rickie is Bernie Jones, an older boy with severe cerebral palsy and confined to a wheelchair. The friendship between Rickie and Bernie deepens during Rickie's daily newspaper deliveries and his readings to Bernie of the Dick Tracy comic strip, their bad-guy busting hero. After the readings, Rickie shares his day at school and other events with Bernie, an eager listener unable to attend school or socialize in any significant manner. In time, Bernie's vicarious experiences through Rickie grow into real adventures with Rickie. A wanderlust at heart, though incapable in body, Bernie's quests for excitement are usually impractical strokes of unimaginable invention. Periodically, however, he concocts a plan that Rickie agrees to, and then their adventures begin.

Along his paper route, Rickie encounters a variety of other eccentric and endearing DeGraff characters.

  • Fern Burdette, a world traveled, wooden legged, hard drinking, retired newspaper reporter who returns to DeGraff and walks around town wearing a brassiere as her only clothing from the waist up.

  • Miss Lizzie, a petite, fragile, cloistered whisper of a woman who seldom leaves her house, but one Halloween evening invites Rickie and Bernie in to help her give out treats.

  • Frank Tully, a pipsqueak oddity of indefinable proportions who never misses any DeGraff social event and, as a consequence, gets himself included in a hamburger-eating contest between DeGraff's two biggest gastronomes, Wimpy Knight and Turkey Thompson.

  • Mrs. Mary Waite, an invalid who makes an unusual request of Rickie: she asks him to read aloud the daily newspaper obituaries.

The Side-Yard Superhero is filled with unique and charismatic characters. Now, steep a pot of hot tea, cuddle into a cushy easy chair, and drift back to innocent times with Rickie and his friends. We promise you will grow to love life in DeGraff as much as Rickie does.

Click here to read the Prologue and an excerpt from the first two chapters!