By Alexandra Bergin

Since 2002 Amar’e Stoudemire has played in approximately 700 games. In between playing ball, acting, producing, parenting, and designing, Stoudemire managed to find time to write his own chapter book series for middle grade readers.

In August of 2012, he teamed up with Scholastic and released the first book of his series titled STAT: Standing Tall and Talented Book #1: Home Court. Since then, Stoudemire has published four other books for the series. Stoudemire formed the title of his book series off of his nickname, STAT. Standing Tall and Talented is about the life of eleven-year-old Amar’e Stoudemire and the challenges he faces growing up.

On January 9, he released the newest addition to his chapter series, STAT: Standing Tall and Talented Book #5: Most Valuable. The adventure continues for young Amar’e Stoudemire when he receives a call from his idol Omar “Overtime” Tanner. Overtime is in charge of a big tournament and when he gets injured in a game, he asks Amar’e to take his place. Planning a tournament is hard work, not to mention playing in one too!  Amar’e is torn when multiple groups of friends ask him to play on their team. With hard work and dedication Amar’e is able to persevere.   Throughout the five chapter books, Stoudemire addresses bullying, decision-making, setting and achieving goals, and learning how to be confident and believe in yourself.

Being a professional athlete, he has many children who look up to him. Stoudemire decided to write the STAT series to encourage those children to learn and love to read. In Book #5, he writes, “Stay smart. Believe in school.” because he wishes that he loved reading when he was younger as much as he does now.

Stoudemire’s books can be ordered online via Amazon, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, Hastings, Indie Bound, and Scholastic.