This book is based on the true story of Tyler Moore, a teenage boy with cystic fibrosis who leads his team on the most magical sports ride in West Virginia public school history. No one at Harpers Ferry Junior High knew why Tyler wanted to wrestle when he had cystic fibrosis. Maybe he wanted to do something with his life while he still had time. We just knew that he loved wrestling and being a part of our team. But whenever he went to the hospital, we always expected him to come back home to Blue Ridge Mountain. We also knew that Tyler had a dream.
He always said that if we all stuck together, something would happen to our team that people would never forget. He was right about that. It was funny, because Tyler wasn't a very good wrestler, at least not in the beginning, but neither were most of us. But for three years we stuck together.
It was Tyler who helped us overcome the curse of John Brown and the constant beatings by our hated county rival, Mecklenburg Junior High. He led us through a major cheating scandal that was reported in every newspaper in the state, and all the finger-pointing that divided our county and brought our coaches to the brink of resigning. Tyler was some kind of kid.
It was that last year together that we will always remember, both the good and the bad. Certainly we went on the most magical sports ride in West Virginia public school history. But as we battled the brutal winter trying to accomplish something that had never been done before, it took something terrible to bring everyone to their senses. Along the way we learned about friendship and courage and holding on to the important things in life. More importantly, we were trying to do the impossible. We were trying to make Tyler's dream come true.
You won't see any signs in our little town honoring John Brown and his infamous raid that ignited the Civil War. But you will see a sign at the entrance to Harpers Ferry honoring a teenage boy who had a dream that ended a war in our county that had been going on forever. Call it Tyler's Mountain Magic. Unfortunately, we learned that everything comes with a price.
**TYLER'S MOUNTAIN MAGIC was selected as the 1st Place Award Winner for best book length novel in 2011 by the West Virginia Writers, Inc.**
**TYLER'S MOUNTAIN MAGIC was also selected as the 2012 Pinnacle Book Achievement Award winner in Sports.**
About the Author:
Malcolm Ater has been the special education reading teacher at Harpers Ferry Junior High and Harpers Ferry Middle School for 23 years. He is most proud of the fact that between 2005 and 2009, his students had the highest combined special education reading achievement test scores of any middle school in West Virginia during that four-year period.
He was also the assistant wrestling coach at Harpers Ferry Junior High for five years, and the head coach from 1997 to 2001. He was the fastest coach in West Virginia secondary school history to win 100 games or matches in any sport, with a four-year record of 110 wins and 14 losses.
Over the years, he has frequently contributed human interest stories to Goldenseal, the official state magazine of West Virginia. Malcolm has also written over a hundred human interest stories for the local newspapers, along with three 16-page educational comics. Two of the comics were distibuted nationally by the American Cancer Society, 'So You Want to Stop? You Can!' and 'Taking a Chance, With No Chance to Win.'His other comic, 'What You Know About AIDS Can Save Your LIfe' was endorsed by the U.S. Surgeon General and distributed by the Centers for Disease Control. All three comics reached a distibution of well over one million copies each.
Malcolm earned his B.S. in Education from Old Dominion University where he was a varsity baseball pitcher. He earned his master's degree in Special Education from West Virginia University.
He lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia with his wife, Valerie, and his two dogs and a cat.
