A Trip to the Gym!

About the Book

Maggie, Aiden, and Mary Joe are great friends. They all met in Kindergarten and now they are together in first grade. They love their teacher, Mrs. McDowell, and their bodies are filled with joy and excitement, especially Maggie and Mary Joe’s but Aiden starts to have second thoughts when he finds out that they will be going into the gym for a class. Aiden has never been in a gym before and his fear and anxiety grow as they walk through the long hallways toward this unknown territory. Once the students meet Mr. Kosek they start to realize that gym class might not be all that bad. Maggie and Mary Joe work together to help relieve Aiden of the stress he has built up inside him while they learn new ideas about their bodies, and participate in new activities, some of which they never thought they would be able to do at school.

About the Author

Blaine Kosek began his career as a struggling musician, playing guitar in rock bands and spending most of his time writing music. During this time, he was also attending the University of Illinois at Chicago, studying Kinesiology and Physical Education. Although he had a serious passion for music and the arts, Blaine began his career as a Physical Education teacher for grades kindergarten to eight in the Chicago Public School system. During his twelve years of teaching, he noticed the joy that young students have while learning to read and was inspired to start writing poetry along with lyrics, and eventually his first children’s book, A Trip to the Gym. This is the first of many books to come in this inspiring authors future.