Tyler's Mountain Magic

**TYLER'S MOUNTAIN MAGIC was selected as the 1st Place Award Winner for best book length novel of 2011 by the West Virginia Writers, Inc.**

"Tyler's Mountain Magic" by Malcolm Ater is the Heartwarming Tribute to a Boy With Cystic Fibrosis and How He United a Divided County in West Virginia

HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. - Although Tyler Moore was plagued by cystic fibrosis since early childhood, he refused to allow the progressive illness to disrupt his ambition of excelling at sports. Ater's "Tyler's Mountain Magic" (ISBN-13: 978-0615440811) is the story of how Tyler took his little junior high school and the town of Harpers Ferry on the most magical sports ride in West Virginia history.

Ater describes Tyler's unwillingness to quit at anything. As a youngster, he had wrestled in the county youth league for two years and never won a match. But in the seventh grade, he won his last match of the season to help defeat the county's other junior high school for the first time in 25 years, finally ending the "curse" of John Brown. The following year Tyler became the glue that held the team together when a season-ending cheating scandal rocked the entire county and divided the people.

By the time he was a ninth grader, Tyler had an impossible dream: he and his friends on Blue Ridge Mountain were going to become the only team in West Virginia public school history to win 40 games or matches in a single season, in any sport. Ater chronicles the 3,000-mile journey around the state as the boys work to accomplish something that people said could never be done. Readers experience the drama and sacrifice that Tyler and his teammates make as the cheating scandal from the previous year is rekindled and their coaches talk of resigning over the county's lack of ethical standards in sports.

"Even though 10 or 15 years ago many children with cystic fibrosis did not live into adulthood, Tyler was not afraid of dying," Ater says. "He wanted his life to stand for something while he still had time."

Today at the entrance to Harpers Ferry, there is no sign honoring John Brown or his infamous raid that ignited the Civil War, but there is a sign honoring a teenage boy who brought an impossible dream to his small town.

It was named by the West Virginia Writers, Inc. as the Best Book Length Story in 2011

Tyler's Mountain Magic is available for sale at Amazon.com, numerous book outlets, and our website.

About the Author:

Malcolm Ater has taught special education reading at Harpers Ferry Junior High and Harpers Ferry Middle School for 23 years. Between 2006 and 2009, his students had the highest combined special education reading achievement test scores of any middle school in West Virginia. He was the fastest head coach in West Virginia public school history to win 100 games or matches, resigning after four years with a career record of 110 wins and 14 losses. Ater has frequently contributed human interest stories to Goldenseal, the official state magazine of West Virginia, and also written numerous newspaper articles.