Sports Superstar ©Best

Following is the entire text of the story. The words in red represent the personalized information.

Charlie Hartman
The Sports Superstar
Love,
Papa
August 2, 2008

Charlie Hartman, age 5, lived in Round Lake, Illinois. He liked to play different kinds of sports and dreamed about becoming a professional player. Jack and Dominic thought Charlie was a great athlete.
One day Charlie saw a television commercial for a new sporting goods store.

The next day, Charlie went to the store. He walked over to a pile of baseball bats. He tried to hold the bat just like the professional player in the poster.
Charlie closed his eyes. Suddenly, he was actually playing in the World Series!

The baseball stadium was packed like sardines. The crowd was doing the wave and flying colorful banners in the air.
The bases were loaded. The team depended on Charlie to score the winning run. He held the bat tight as the mean-looking pitcher threw a curve ball. Charlie swung and hit the ball.

The ball flew up, up, up in the air! It kept on going all the way out of the ballpark!
"Holy cow, It's a grand slam!" the announcer yelled.
Charlie thought, "Gee whiz, Jack and Dominic would be proud of me!" Charlie dropped the bat to run the bases and...

Charlie was back in the sporting goods store. He was a little confused, so he walked across the aisle to a display of basketballs. He began to dribble a basketball. In an instant, Charlie was playing in the finals.

The basketball stands were jammed with people. Jack and Dominic sat at center court chanting, "Sink it! Sink it!"
Charlie looked at the scoreboard. There were only seconds left in the game.

Charlie dribbled across the court, then quickly slam dunked the ball. It zoomed straight through the basket!
The cheerleaders sang, "Hooray! Hooray for Charlie!"
The team lifted Charlie on their shoulders. When they put his down, he was once again at the sporting goods store.

Charlie picked up a football and began to watch the Super Bowl on a big screen TV.
Suddenly, he was the quarterback on the field. There were two seconds left in the game and his team was five points behind. Three enormous linemen from the other team were heading straight for Charlie.

Charlie managed to spin out of the tackle and avoid a sack. He ran twenty yards, forty yards, then fifty! Touchdown!
Charlie was so happy he threw the football in the air, and did a little victory dance. Charlie was given a beautiful trophy and named the MVP of the year.

Suddenly, Charlie realized the store was closing.
On the way to the exit he passed a display of trophies and thought, If I practice really hard, my dreams of becoming a professional athlete really could come true. I can’t wait to tell Jack and Dominic about my wonderful sports adventure.

Here are samples of some of the illustrated pages.  To read the story, click on the "Read the Story" tab to the left.

• Quality, hard-cover personalized children's book
• Washable hard cover
• Fully illustrated color pages
• 24 pages
• Measures 6" x 9"