Author of Red Earth, White Earth and A Gravestone Made of Wheat, Will Weaver grew up in northern Minnesota on a dairy farm. The sometimes harsh and beautiful landscape of farm and small town life figures strongly in his writing. Sweet Land, an independent feature film adaptation of his story “Gravestone Made of Wheat”, and starring Ned Beatty, premiered in October of 2006.

Weaver is also known for his young adult fiction. His character Billy Baggs, a teenage farm boy baseball phenom, earned his way into the hearts of teen readers in the series Striking Out, Farm Team, and Hard Ball. Each novel has won numerous awards, including being named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Memory Boy, a post-apocalyptic novel based on environmental collapse, is used across the curriculum in many junior and senior high schools.

Claws, a novel set in northeastern Minnesota (Duluth and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness) features outdoor survival with a strong family back story. Weaver’s Full Service won starred reviews (Kirkus Reviews and The Horn Book) for its focus on a young man struggling with matters of religious faith and doubt, all complicated by his first “real” summer job, at a gas station, where he “meets the public” in all its variety. Defect, a novel about a teenager born with a miraculous birth abnormality, highlights what one reviewer from The St. Paul Pioneer Press called “the humanity and decency that runs through all of Weaver’s work.”.

As an author, Mr. Weaver is particularly concerned with youth literacy and keeping kids reading. His new MOTOR series addresses a group of underserved young adult readers: kids who love cars. His new novel Saturday Night Dirt and its sequel, Super Stock Rookie, focus on dirt track stock car racing. The series starts with a close focus on a small town speedway and the cast of colorful characters who come there to race on Saturday nights. One of the characters, sixteen-year-old Trace Bonham, is a natural driver with dreams of racing professionally. The MOTOR series follows Trace’s on his path toward getting a “ride” (a sponsored race car) and competing at the highest level he can. While these auto racing novels will certainly appeal to boys, Weaver’s novels always contain a diverse cast of characters. Auto racing is one of the few sports that gives no gender advantage, and the MOTOR series also includes a positive and realistic portrayal of young women involved in racing.

Along with the MOTOR series of novels, Weaver has formed a stock car racing team with a teenaged driver. His black No. 16 Modified race car, co-sponsored by Farrar, Straus & Giroux publishers, is driven by Skyler Smith of Bemidji. Team Weaver races in the WISSOTA circuit in the upper Midwest. You can learn more about the Skyler, the race car and the MOTOR series at www.motornovels.com.

An avid outdoorsman, Will Weaver lives with his wife on the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota.

A note from the author
At a recent young adult literature conference in Minneapolis, a high school teacher stood up to address a panel of authors on which I was speaking. “But where are the novels for kids who love cars and hate their English classes?” she asked. “I’ve got lots of boys in my school—and some girls, too—whose lives revolve around auto racing. They have their favorite NASCAR drivers, they go to races, some of them drive stock cars at the local dirt track. Cars and racing are their life. We need something for these kids to read!” The audience laughed, then clapped loudly. Afterward I spoke privately with the teacher. I told her about Saturday Night Dirt and my forthcoming Motor series from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. She actually hugged me. “My students are going to eat those books up!” she said. “I can’t wait for the next time one of them says, ‘There’s nothing for me to read.’”

Coming Spring 2009
Super Stock Rookie
A MOTOR Novel

Trace Bonham has left home for the chance of a lifetime: to race for a professional team. After a tough tryout, he wins his dream ride. But he has growing doubts about the team owner and his wife. Did they choose Trace for his driving ability, or to be a poster boy for a marketing campaign? And when Trace’s racing circuit brings him home to Headwaters Speedway, he’s treated like a star—until the green flag drops.

Supplemental Materials

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Excerpts

Coming Spring 2009
Super Stock Rookie
A MOTOR Novel

Excerpted from Saturday Night Dirt by Will Weaver
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.