by Brad Meltzer
Not when he was under the weather, or drained, or just wanted to take a day for himself.
Not when he broke his thumb.
Or his toe.
Or when he suffered the seventeen other “healed” fractures that they found in just his hand and that they never knew about because he never complained.
For thirteen seasons, for more than two thousand games in a row,
Lou Gehrig showed up,
because he never wanted to let us down.
The only thing that stopped him?
The fatal disease that once caused his back to spasm so badly, he had to be carried off the field.
They called Lou Gehrig “the Iron Horse.”
But he wasn’t made of iron.
He was made like us.
He just didn’t let that stop him. *
I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. And I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.
—Lou Gehrig, farewell speech, July 4, 1939, Yankee Stadium
—DESIGNER—
teri meltzer
My mom.
It was the worst day of my professional life.
My publisher was shutting down, and we had no idea if another publisher would take over my contract.
This was terrifying to me. I was wracked with fear, feeling like I was watching my career deteriorate.
But as I shared my fears with my mother, her reaction was instantaneous: “I’d love you if you were a garbage man.”
It wasn’t anything she practiced. It was just her honest feelings at that moment.
To this day, every day that I sit down to write, I say those words to myself—“I’d love you if you were a garbage man”—soaking in the purity and selflessness of that love from my mother.
Her name was Teri Meltzer. And, Theo, she’s the woman you’re named after. H
Now you’ll understand how I love you.
—Teri Meltzer, on the birth of each of my children
Not everyone is nice like that.
—The receptionist in my mom’s doctor’s office, when she heard that my mom had died from breast cancer. Always remember: the truth is what people say behind your back.
—FAMILY MAN—
ben rubin
My grandfather.
He was bald.
He had flat feet.
And he was just a cutter, spending long days slicing fabrics in the garment center.
But he was my grandfather.
Your great-grandfather.
And when I was your age, he used to tell me stories about Batman, simply because he knew how much I loved Batman stories.
He made up those stories just for me, inspiring me to be a writer.
Which is why, Jonas Benjamin, I named you after him. *
He sounds nice.
—Jonas Benjamin Meltzer, age six
your hero’s
photo here
your hero’s story here…
There are many heroes in this world. Far more than we could fit in one book. If you have a hero, please share your story with us. Your hero could be someone everyone knows or someone only you know. We’d love to hear, for instance, about the teacher or mentor who made a difference in your life.
So please send your story to:
[email protected]
or to
Brad Meltzer
20533 Biscayne Boulevard, #371
Aventura, FL 33180
To see even more of what you can do, please visit: www.OrdinaryPeopleChangeTheWorld.com and www.HeroesForMySon.com.
Photograph Credits
Grateful acknowledgment is given to the following sources for photographs in this book:
Jacket photograph © Richard Mallory Allnutt 2008, www.rmallnutt.com
Neil Armstrong © NASA Johnson Space Center Collection, George H. W. Bush © George Bush Presidential Library, Roberto Clemente © Jim Hanson, Clara Hale © Hale House, Jim Henson © Bernard Gotfryd, Barbara Johns © Robert Russa Moton Museum, Teri Meltzer and Ben Rubin © Brad Meltzer, Andy Miyares © Miyaris Family/Special Olympics Florida, Jackie Robinson © National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY, Eleanor Roosevelt © Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Eli Segal © Phyllis Segal, Officer Frank Shankwitz © Frank Shankwitz/Make-A-Wish Foundation, Team Hoyt © Team Hoyt Foundation, Dan West © Heifer International, Oprah Winfrey © Charlie Knoblock/Associated Press
Corbis Images: Paul Newman © Bettmann, Barack Obama © Obama for America/Reuters, Steven Spielberg © Steve Schapiro
Getty Images: Lucille Ball © Michael Ochs Archives, Norman Borlaug © Art Rickerby/Time & Life Pictures, Charlie Chaplin © American Stock, Albert Einstein © Ernst Haas, Mahatma Gandhi © Apic, Lou Gehrig © Transcendental Graphics, Miep Gies © Anne Frank Fonds-Basel/Anne Frank House, Aung San Suu Kyi © Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP, John Lennon © Chris Walter/WireImage, Nelson Mandela © Jurgen Schadeberg, Mother Teresa © Mark Edwards, Chesley B. Sullenberger III © Pool
Library of Congress: Bella Abzug—LC-DIG-ppmsc-03683, Frederick Douglass—LC-USZ62-15887, Harry Houdini—LC-USZC4-3277, Jesse Owens—LCUSZ62-27663, Dr. Seuss—LC-USZ62-116956, Anne Sullivan—LC-USZ6-2244, Harriet Tubman—LC-USZ62-7816, Mark Twain—LC-USZ62-112728, The Wright Brothers—LC-W861-111
New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Library of Congress: Muhammad Ali—LC-USZ62-137782, Amelia Earhart—LCUSZ62-119130, Martin Luther King Jr.—LC-USZ62-111164, Harper Lee—LCUSZ62-121597, Pelé—LC-USZ62-120850, Jonas Salk—LC-USZ62-92227
National Archives: Thomas Jefferson—ARC Identifier 535935/Local Identifier 208-PU-104HH(4), Abraham Lincoln—ARC Identifier 527823/Local Identifier 111-B-3656, George Washington—ARC Identifier 532939/Local Identifier 148-GW-1073
Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel © Joanne Siegel, copy in the Special Collections Research Center, Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Mr. Rogers © Robert Lerner, photographer, LOOK Magazine Collection, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-L9 69-5151-kk
acknowledgments
Special thanks to Andy Miyares and the entire Miyares family, Special Olympics Florida, Officer Frank Shankwitz, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Arizona, TeamHoyt.com, the family of Jim Hanson, Bernard Gotfryd, the legendary Robert Lerner, Joanne Siegel, Laura Siegel Larson, Norma Sue Hanson and everyone at Case Western Reserve University’s Kelvin Smith Library, Bradley Ricca, Heifer International and the people at Heifer.org, Nick Raposo for sharing his dad’s song, Alexis Soto and everyone at HaleHouse.org, and my friend Phyllis Segal.
There are many heroes in my life. But my favorite ones are my little ones—my children—Jonas, Lila, and Theo, who are the three reasons this book exists. They teach me every day; they inspire me every day—and they are my truest dreams. My other hero is my wife, Cori, who gave me my greatest gifts and was the very first to believe. Thank you to my dad, who fed my love of heroes by buying me all those comic books. And thank you to my sister, Bari, for her super strength; to Noah Kuttler for his super hearing (and who pushed me so hard with this one); and to Teri Meltzer and Ben Rubin, my mother and Poppy, for giving me everything else I needed and in whose memory this project lives.
For me, this has never been just a book. It is a dream. So special thanks to Jill Kneerim, who shoved me along from the very first slumber; Hope Denekamp, Caroline Zimmerman, and everyone at the Kneerim & Williams Agency; my dear friend Larry Kirshbaum, the real godfather of this project; Simon Sinek, who told me my first inspiring story; Joel Marlin, who added the earliest research; Marie Grunbeck for reading my mind; Rusty Greiff and Elizabeth Shreve for sharing their sweet boy; Richard Mallory Allnutt for the cover photo; Katherine Blood from the Library of Congress; Chris Weiss, who inspired the first question; Rob Weisbach, the first to have faith; and all the real heroes who shared pictures and family stories.
A special thank you must also be said to my fellow dreamer and p
artner-in-crime, Brad Desnoyer, whose research made me really look like the history nerd I’ve always pretended to be. His contribution here cannot be overstated, but it’s his friendship that is treasured.
Finally, a thank you to Katie Salisbury, Kathryn Ratcliffe-Lee, Debbie Stier, Jessica Wiener, Kim Lewis, Leah Carlson-Stanisic, Mary Schuck, Nikki Cutler, Doug Jones, and everyone at HarperStudio, for creating such a warm second home in the writing community. And to Bob Miller, for building that home so beautifully. I mean it, Bob. Thank you for this gift that I can give to my sons—and for your trust and faith.
About the Author
BRAD MELTZER is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Fate, as well as the bestsellers The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, The Millionaires, The Zero Game, and The Book of Lics. His newest thriller, The Inner Circle, will be released in January 2011. He lives in Florida with his wife, Cori, and coaches lots of Little League for their three children, Jonas, Lila, and Theo.
www.BradMeltzer.com
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
also by brad meltzer
The Book of Lies
The Book of Fate
The Zero Game
The Millionaires
The First Counsel
Dead Even
The Tenth Justice
Credits
Jacket design by Mary Schuck
Jacket photograph by Richard Mallory Allnutt / www.rmallnutt.com
Copyright
Excerpts from It’s Not Easy Being Green and Other Things to Consider by Jim Henson, published by Hyperion, are (c) The Muppets Studio LLC and are used by permission.
"Bein’ Green," music and lyrics by Joe Raposo © 1970 by Jonico Music, Inc. (BMI) Rights in the U.S.A. administered by Green Fox Music, Inc. Rights outside of the U.S.A. administered by Jonico Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used courtesy of The Joe Raposo Music Group.
HEROES FOR MY SON. Copyright © 2010 by Forty-four Steps, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Meltzer, Brad.
Heroes for my son / by Brad Meltzer.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-06-190528-5
1. Conduct of life—Juvenile literature. 2. Heroes—Biography—Juvenile literature. I. Title.
BJ1547.4.M45 2010
920.02—dc22
[B]
2009051550
EPub Edition © April 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-199355-8
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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