Patty Prevo: Hi, this is Patty Cisneros Prevo. I am the author of Tenacious: 15 Adventures Alongside Disabled Athletes, which is illustrated by Dion MBD. So I was a fourth grade teacher and also a new mom. And when we would go to libraries and check out books, we were always in the search of finding disabled characters. And sadly, there weren't many books written with disabled characters. There were books with characters in the illustrations that had a disability, whether they used a wheelchair or were amputees and had prosthetic limbs. But there were very few books that had disabled characters as the main characters. So I decided to write this book. I knew that my experiences as a disabled person and wheelchair user, and also as a former Paralympian who played wheelchair basketball for many years, I wanted to bring these characters to life. So I really wanted to highlight the diversity in the adaptive sport world, so diversity of ethnicity and race, diversity of gender, diversity of our disabilities, and diversity of the sports that we play.

So I included marathon racing, and I included sled hockey in addition to track and field, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, downhill skiing. And so it just evolved to include so many different athletes. I finally settled on 15 athletes. I really wanted to bring recognition, honor, respect to the disabled community by picking a title that really highlighted the individuals and didn't sensationalize or bring about a negative connotation to these disabled athletes. So landed on "tenacious" because I think all of these individuals in the book are tenacious and in the title wanted to highlight that they were disabled athletes. And really reclaiming the word "disabled," "disability," because again, that could be viewed negatively in our society, and I really wanted to highlight it in a positive way. So Tenacious: 15 Adventures Alongside Disabled Athletes highlights these incredible 15 individuals.

I have two kids in the book, which is cool. So I am super excited for people to know these individuals. They're all really great friends of mine, and I'm excited to really push disability to the forefront of children's literature.

And now I'd like to read aloud from Tenacious: 15 Adventures Alongside Disabled Athletes.

"Take a journey with this crew. Come discover what they do. Race and jump and shoot and soar in sports events and so much more. Passion is their common theme. Have some fun and join the team. Strong, determined, all with grit. You're tenacious. Go for it!"