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Scobre Press Books Share Inspirational Stories of Athletes

Dodger Stadium Book Giveaway Will Inspire 20,000 Kids To Read

For many young readers, it takes a specific genre to ignite the necessary attraction for a book to win out over television and video games, and for many that genre is Sports. Books about sports and athletes have just the right blend of excitement, coolness, and cultural association to capture the imagination of today’s image-conscious kids.

Scobre Press is a publisher of young people's books designed to increase literacy by reaching American youth through sports. Scobre books teach life lessons, reinforce a value structure, and positively influence young people by entertaining them with stories about athletes who act as role models.

Common topics include:
1) The overlooked athlete
2) The overachieving athlete
3) The under-privileged athlete
4) The minority athlete
5) The persevering athlete

Every child faces difficult challenges growing up that can become turning points in their lives. For some it may be overcoming a lingering fear and for others it may be facing an unforeseen moral dilemma that could alter the course of their lives. The moral dilemmas facing the athletes in a Scobre story reflect situations facing many young people today. The company’s goal is to enable young people to resolve these dilemmas in the same heroic fashion as the athletes depicted in our books. After reading a Scobre Press book, the hope is that a young person will feel inspired to face the future with confidence.

Scobre Press books are the creation of two bright up-and-coming authors -- Scott Blumenthal and Brett Hodus -- who formed a publishing company under some pretty unique circumstances.

Placed together aboard a college “Semester at Sea” boat, Blumenthal, 24, and Hodus, 23, hailed from opposite sides of the country. Blumenthal was born and raised in San Diego and went on to USC where he pursued a BA in English. Hodus, from Monroe, New York, majored in screenwriting at NYU. On the semester-long nautical journey, the two forged a friendship and began planning for their first young adult book (ages 8-14), The Road to the Majors.

They finished the book while finishing up at their respective colleges and knew they had something good on their hands. Hodus packed up his car and moved out to San Diego to start Scobre Press Corporation, the name a combination of the two founder’s first names.

"We started this thing for the kids that don't usually read, for the ones like me who only read sports books when we were younger,” says Blumenthal. “Without sports books, I would probably still be trapped in the third grade and a lot of my friends would be right there with me. These books will keep kids reading and with all of our titles, subjects, and athletes to read about and look up, our readers don't seem to make just one trip to the bookstore. It's like those potato chip commercials that said, 'bet you can't eat just one.' Well, if you're a kid, I 'bet you can't read just one.' So, I guess Scobre stories are addicting, and it sure is better being addicted to sports books than some other things that kids are faced with."

Writing and publishing a book is one thing, but getting it distributed and sold is another. The two young entrepreneurs, understanding these difficulties, looked to Scholastic Inc., a leader in marketing select children’s books, to help them out.

“My mom actually pushed me to call Scholastic,” says Hodus. “At first, they pretty much told me that I had a better chance of being struck by lightning on a sunny day in San Diego. But somehow they picked up the book.”

Being one of the dozen or so books that are chosen for Scholastic’s Book Clubs from the 50,000 submitted is a testament to the unique angle that the stories take. Because the books cater to kids’ interests and curiosities, they will read them for pleasure, unaware of the positive affects that the reading has on their young mind. With a constant flow of books, (subjects ranging from football to girls soccer), and a broad range of athletes to relate to and look up to, young people will be provided with multiple sources of inspiration.

This spring, Scott and Brett plan to make another “miracle” occur. On Thursday, May 22, before a National League game at Dodger Stadium between the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Dodgers will give away 20,000 inspirational baseball books to attending children 14 years and younger.

With any luck, young Dodgers fans will soon find the inevitable struggles of growing up a little easier to deal with. The two rising publishers are concentrating on marketing efforts for Scobre’s eight young adult sports books due out in 2003. The ‘Dream Series,’ which will grow to sixteen books in 2004, includes such titles as Hoop City (January 2003), a basketball book by Blumenthal and Hodus; Keeper (March 2003), a girls’ soccer story by Holly Goldberg Sloan, the screenwriter of Angels in the Outfield and most recently, The Crocodile Hunter Movie: Collision Course; and The Highest Stand (May 2003), a track and field tale authored by Tonie Campbell, three-time United States Olympian.

So far the formula seems to be working; in the first eight months alone, more than 100,000 copies of The Road to the Majors were sold, and now there are five more titles to go with the original, including Long Shot (May 2003), a girls’ basketball book by Marie Fowler (May 2003) and Chasing the King (May 2003), a boys’ soccer story by Joshua Stein.

“It’s fun to create books that cater to children’s interest and curiosities,” says Hodus. “With a constant flow of books and a broad range of athletes to relate to and look up to, young people will be provided with many sources of inspiration.”

“Every time a young person picks up a Scobre Press book, he or she is not only enhancing his or her education, but also making a new friend, finding motivation, and learning that his or her specific problems are universal,” says Blumenthal. “We want every kid that reads one of our books to believe that his or her goals are achievable.”

"This company has made some long strides in just two years, yet I'd be crazy to say it was just Brett and I. Most that takes place in the publishing business occurs behind the scenes. Look at our covers, for example, kids can see it's a Scobre book from across the store, that exploding ball on the cover has been perfected by our art team -- and the kids love it.

“Our editing is top-notch, our art team creates stuff that has boggled my mind, and our authors are all ridiculously gifted. Simply put, we've just been really lucky. People believe in what we're doing, they believe these books will make a difference for young readers, and we have really found a nice niche. Sports books for young adults, simple enough, huh?"

"Our books are all about athletes that act as role models. Yeah, some athletes really do act as role models, I know this is hard to imagine in the day and age of the Portland Trailblazers and Darryl Strawberry. We don't need our next generation of kids to turn to these guys as their role models. Instead, they can turn to our books’ line of characters: Tony Hope, Sasha Lewis, Dede Savage, all of them.”

“I think that kids will find that they have much more in common with the kids in our books than the athletes they see on television. You know, this world needs a few feel-good stories and we've got some. Scobre books look to teach life lessons, reinforce value structures and positively influence young people by entertaining them with stories about athletes who act like role models."      

Now that Scobre is “on the map,” are the boys going to retire to Malibu beach houses?

“There comes a certain stereotype about all those that do business in Southern California, especially in respect to young publishers that set their own hours, and that we only work when the skies are clouded and there's nothing else to do. But here in San Diego if we waited for a cloudy day, we'd never work. So rain or shine, you can count on us being in the office and I think our dedication is a big reason for the progress we have made in just over two years."

"Maybe some people haven't heard of our books yet, but I'm confident that the secret about our sports books is about to be let out of the bag, and in a big way. To say we are looking forward to BookExpo in Los Angeles, well, that would be an understatement."

"With that said, I am also looking forward to enjoying May 22nd and the Dodgers book giveaway day. After all the writing and editing, marketing, calling and recalling every day, it will be nice to get out there and watch the 20,000 kids receive copies of the baseball book. That is a day of reward, and I'll kind of just hang around the entrances to Dodger Stadium and watch the excited look on the kids' faces when they are handed their books. That will be pretty special. That makes it all worthwhile."