Fort Bragg’s Irwin Intermediate School had a special guest visit on Thursday, September 26 to kickoff their Reading Is Fundamental event for 600 kids and 100 parents.
NBA’s six time MVP and all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke at the literacy celebration inside the library.
The retired American professional basketball player shared what it was like growing up and how he got the idea for his children’s novel.
Sasquatch in the Paint, a sports novel for children, laced with a little bit of mystery. The book is geared for youth ages 8 to 12 years of age and is about an 8th grader, Theo, after going through a growth spurt, has to start school 6 inches taller. The coach wants to transform him from invisible science geek into star basketball player.
Abdul-Jabbar took questions from parents that quickly led to questions about basketball success, which he deflected back to being a part of team is the key to winning.
The basketball superstar talked about growing up in a home full of books and he followed suit in his own home with his two, now grown, daughters.
Reading Is Fundamental is the nation’s largest children’s literacy nonprofit and they ordered 3,500 of Abdul-Jabbar’s book for the school kids to take home.
In 2012, he was selected by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be a U.S. global cultural ambassador.
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