K. Schumer

In my resume you can see that for the first half of my fifty years as a teacher, I taught junior high school English. During the second half, I taught children Poetry and Spoken Word and Drama.

When I retired, I wrote a novel for all my kids, a story meant to be a modern day Sword in the Stone, featuring King Arthur as a boy— but set in inner city Springfield, Massachusetts where I was teaching in 1986.

The plot involves how my Merlyn character— who is not only a latter day wizard but also an ordained rabbi— comes to prepare the teenage Manny Garcia to be the 49th President of the United States.

The First Aquarian Commander will introduce young readers to President Garcia in the ninth grade. This was a time in Manny’s life when his world was about to be turned upside-down and inside-out.

UPSIDE-DOWN because he and his new friend, Ellen Rosen, have just realized they are falling in love. INSIDE-OUT because Manny is about to encounter Samuel T. Hermano, a master magician and ordained rabbi sent to him by secret allies to prepare the boy for his future role on the world stage.

This orphan growing up in the poor North End of Springfield, Massachusetts would soon find himself amongst an unconventional congregation of Jews rising up against The Ba’alist Agenda— “an ancient blueprint for converting former followers of the God of Abraham into secularized, savvy intellectuals who will covet material things while they sentimentalize matters of the spirit.”

Mr. Hermano had just begun to teach Manny the magic for traveling outside his physical body when they learn that Manny’s precious twelve year old friend, Rojo, has been taken hostage by an insane voodoo drug dealer named, Queenie LaRouge.

K. Schumer

His secret allies have been forced to reveal themselves much sooner than they had anticipated because Manny feels compelled to take immediate action, while his teacher urges that he is not ready yet.

In the short decade since I started writing this book, I’ve been concerned how rapidly the values associated with having money and making money have metastasized throughout our entire culture, particularly corrupting the traditional purpose of an American education. The materialistic and dystopian themes so prevalent in today’s literature will be made more comprehensible to today’s young readers when they learn the peculiar history of “The Ba’alist Agenda.”