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I am the author of the bestselling novel, SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF MAYBE (Random House Children’s Books), which won the Southern Book Prize and is an Amazon Teacher's Pick. I'm thrilled that Smack Dab is on the NC Elementary Battle of the Books List. Smack Dab takes readers on an adventure with 12-year-old Cricket as she tries to survive on her own in the woods of an overgrown ghost town and solve a clue trail left by an eccentric artist, all to try to find a secret room that may or may not exist. Cricket must use her wits and just a smidgen of luck to live off the land and solve the clues. With the help of a poetry-loving dog, maybe, just maybe, she can do it. Smack Dab includes curriculum tie-ins to art, history, geography, literature, mathematics, and science. I love to do school visits and have presented to over 23,000 students, educators, and other professionals. I donate my honorarium to buy books for children selected by the host school. Working with a team of experienced educators, we have developed a bounty of free resources for educators and other readers including outdoor adventures, a "Building Grit Kit," a "Writing and Revision Toolkit," and a "Book Club Kit." These can be found at https://JoHackl.com. You can find me online at @JoHackl (Twitter and Instagram) and at Jo Watson Hackl Author (Facebook). The "Building Grit Kit" uses nature as a springboard point to help students build skills that increase grit and resiliency. You can contact me through my website if you'd like to apply to take part in a mentored implementation of that kit or a study implementing nature-based interventions with a goal of improving student performance on standardized tests. I am also the Founder of https://Outdoorosity.org, a free resource for inspiration and information about nature.