Lydia’s Place

Punch!

[OmniLit][Kindle][KindleUK][KindleGE][Nook][Smashwords]

Ray’s parents are divorced and shuttling him back and forth. Nobody seems to realize how hard this has become for Ray. His only comforts are eating, and hiding out in video games. Now, gaming at school has gotten him suspended. Will taekwondo help him lose weight? Give him more discipline? His parents hope so. It’s the first thing they’ve agreed on in ages.

His gran doesn’t think Ray needs to worry about losing weight. She does agree he needs taekwondo, though. Taekwondo will mean somewhere to go, friends his age to spend time with outside of school, and something for Ray to feel good about besides his skill at video games.

Ray finds out that no matter how bad he thought things were, they can always get worse–and that when life punches you in the heart, it’s good to rely on friends who aren’t made out of sugar or pixels on a game screen.

Life isn’t fair, Mark Holden knows that. The doctor says he has Asperger’s Syndrome, and nobody knows why. What they do know is Asperger’s makes it harder for Mark to understand how other people think, including teachers.

At a taekwondo school, though, you don’t have to figure out what people mean or how they think. It’s a physical activity. Everyone starts the exact same way, in a white uniform with a white belt. You’re only better if a belt you’ve earned says you are, and respect for others is a requirement. Mark likes that.

He thinks a roomful of white belts looks pretty much like a roomful of marshmallows, though. Not like the black belts his mom talks about, in the Olympics; not very tough at all. And who wants to be king of the marshmallows?

When he starts taekwondo, Mark discovers that he and four other kids from his school are in a class full of adults! They’ll have a lot to learn, the faster the better, about taekwondo and each other – but they’ll find there’s nothing like a little heat to make marshmallows stick together.

Episode #1

Ready! by Lydia Ondrusek (Ages 13+)

[OmniLit][Kindle][KindleUK][Nook][Smashwords]

Mark’s Asperger’s Syndrome makes things hard for him at school. Mark’s mom and dad think MORE school is the answer. They can’t be right–can they? When they enroll Mark in the new taekwondo school nearby, he finds that his class is filled with adults–and four kids from his school he’s never met before. So now he’s got to meet new people (ugh), learn MORE new skills (ack), and oh yeah…somewhere in there, he’s got to figure out how not to flunk English.