Grant Overstake

Summer is when a lot of track fans catch up on reading.

Maggie Vaults Over the Moon made CITIUS Mag's list of 100 books every runner and track fan should read, the only title on it about the field events rather than the track.

If you want a story about a Kansas farm girl who takes up the pole vault after the worst year of her life, this one is built for July. E-book, paperback, and audiobook here: https://amz.cx/3f4L

Source: CITIUS Mag "100 books every runner and track fan should read"

A storybook vaulter and a real one, cut from the same Kansas soil.

Maggie Steele teaches herself to pole vault in a hayloft and dreams of vaulting for Wichita State. Brooke Rasnick grew up a small-town Kansas girl who did exactly that, set a Wichita State record, and now coaches at the University of Louisville, where she has guided a national champion and trains Olympic silver medalist Sandi Morris.

This July, Coach Rasnick brings Maggie Vaults Over the Moon to her Louisville pole vault camp as Maggie Awards, one book for every vaulter who shows courage, conquers a fear, or climbs higher than the day before.

Read how the page and real life line up:

Grant Overstake | Maggie Awards: Pole Vault Novel Heads to Louisville Olympic-level coach Brooke Rasnick brings the pole vault novel Maggie Vaults Over the Moon to her University of Louisville camp as Maggie Awards this July.

June is Audiobook Month, so here are two worth your ears.

The Real Education of TJ Crowley: Coming of Age on the Redline won the 2025 Audie Award for Best Young Adult Audiobook, the only independent finalist to take its category, with Dion Graham of the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame in the cast.

Maggie Vaults Over the Moon, read start to finish by Tavia Gilbert, earned a cover-to-cover endorsement from US Olympic vaulter Becky Holliday.

Two outstanding choices for your listening enjoyment.
The only thing left is the part where you press play.

Grant Overstake | Audiobook Month: An Audie Winner and an Olympian's Pick Two audiobooks worth your June: the Audie-winning audio drama The Real Education of TJ Crowley, and Maggie Vaults Over the Moon, narrated by Tavia Gilbert.

Nobody at her school had ever pole vaulted.

Maggie Steele went first.

Seventeen, grieving, and told by a grown man on the school board that the vault is no place for a girl. She didn't wait for permission. She ran, and she flew.

That's Maggie Vaults Over the Moon.

Christine Brennan, now author of the Caitlin Clark book On Her Game, endorsed the novel back in 2012: "After reading it, we'll all wish we were pole vaulters like Maggie."

CITIUS Mag ranks it among the best track-and-field novels going. The Second Edition carries a foreword by Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi

Meet the farm girl who built her own runway.

Grant Overstake | The Girl Who Built Her Own Runway | Maggie Vaults Over the Moon A Kansas farm girl takes up the pole vault in a school that's never had a girl in the event. Christine Brennan saw it first.

A quiet milestone we want to share.

Maggie Vaults Over the Moon has been accepted into CatholicsRead — the Association of Catholic Publishers' national weekly book guide, which goes out every week to Catholic school librarians, parish leaders, bookstore buyers, and readers across the U.S. and Canada.

Maggie isn't a religious book. She's a Kansas pole vaulter who loses her brother and has to figure out how to keep moving. But faith is in the story the way it's in a lot of Kansas lives — present, quiet, load-bearing without being announced. That's why this shelf is the right one.

She now sits alongside titles from the most established Catholic publishers on the continent. For a small Kansas press, that means something.

Grateful to ACP. Grateful to every reader who's carried Maggie this far. If you know a family, a teacher, or a librarian who'd want to meet her — this is a good week to tell them.

Maggie Vaults Over the Moon Now in its enhanced Second Edition, Maggie Vaults Over the Moon is an inspiring, page-turning novel for ages 10 and up and grades 5–8. After the loss of her older brother, Maggie Steele feels trapped by grief and self-do...

Pole Vault Community, something exciting is happening.

We are officially moving Maggie Vaults Over the Moon toward adaptation and looking for the right film and television connections to help take Maggie to the next level.

For years, this story has resonated with readers who understand the beauty, danger, and drama of pole vault. Now we believe the time is right to bring Maggie Steele’s journey of grief, courage, and rise to the screen as a premium limited series.

Grain Valley Publishing Company, LLC controls all adaptation rights, and we are actively seeking introductions to the right producer, manager, development executive, or entertainment insider who knows how to champion material like this.

If someone comes to mind, or if that is you, please send me a private message.

We believe Maggie’s moment is here, and we would be grateful for your help in getting her story into the right hands.

Grant Overstake
Grain Valley Publishing Company, LLC

The Real Education of TJ Crowley has been added to Catholics Read through the Association of Catholic Publishers.

This matters because it places the work directly into Catholic schools, parish programs, and reading groups—communities that are willing to engage difficult history with care and seriousness.

The project pairs an Audie Award–winning full-cast audio drama with a word-for-word Scriptbook designed for read-and-listen use. It’s already being used in classroom and small-group settings.

Set in Wichita in 1968, the story follows a young boy confronting racial division shaped by redlining. It begins with experience, not argument, and gives students something concrete to return to in discussion.

You can see the listing here:
https://catholicsread.org/current-titles/f/the-real-education-of-tj-crowley-coming-of-age-on-the-redline

Classroom resources:
https://real-education-tj-crowle-1naiyry.gamma.site/classroom

As track season begins across Kansas and around the country, athletes are returning to the runway, the starting blocks, and the long workouts that prepare them physically for competition.

But anyone who has spent time around track and field knows the deeper challenge of the sport isn’t physical.

It’s mental.

Confidence. Courage. Resilience. The willingness to try again after a fall.

I wrote about that side of sports in Maggie Vaults Over the Moon, and it’s why Coach Melissa White has used the story with her athletes for years. Her athletes—including Olympic Trials champion Bridget Guy Williams—know that success begins in the mind as much as the body.

As the new season begins, I wrote a short piece about the mental side of track and field and why Maggie’s story still resonates with athletes, coaches, and parents.

Grant Overstake | Track Season Is Back: The Mental Challenge Every Athlete Must Face How Maggie Vaults Over the Moon explores resilience, courage, and the mindset young athletes need to succeed.

The full half-hour episode of “One on One with Victor Hogstrom” on PBS Kansas is now available online.

In this extended conversation, we discuss the historical foundation of The Real Education of TJ Crowley, the research behind the 1968 Wichita setting, and the development of the Audie Award–winning audio drama. We also reflect on the longer journey — from early reporting days at the Wichita Eagle to returning home to build The Real Education Project.

The interview includes personal reflections as well, including the role Claire and I have played in shaping this work over the years. In many ways, it captures decades of writing, research, and partnership in a single conversation.

If you’ve followed the project and wanted a fuller look at how it all connects, the complete episode is now posted on the blog:

Thank you to Victor Hogstrom and the PBS Kansas team for a thoughtful and rewarding interview.

Grant Overstake | Grant Overstake Featured on PBS Kansas’ One on One with Victor Hogstrom Grant Overstake appears on PBS Kansas’ “One on One with Victor Hogstrom” to discuss Wichita history, TJ Crowley, and The Real Education Project.