Johnathon Smith

How many children who are passionate about a sport are also very good at school? Exactly! Not many. What happens is that children who practice sports and want to follow this path and turn their passion into a career tend to ignore school. They either believe school is not so important, or they simply cannot focus well enough to learn and get good grades. Johnathon J. Smith decided to address this problem by writing a children’s book that would show kids why they need to take school seriously.

“Dare to Dream, Play to Win” is a heart-warming and motivating story about a boy who loves football so much that he can’t focus on his classes. Cameron is 9 years old and he dreams of becoming a NFL star. All he can think of is football and how to reach his goal. He ends up getting bad grades, and the worst thing is that he doesn’t understand why he needs to study when his intention is to become a popular football player.

Fantasizing about becoming a NFL star can be good because it helps Cameron set some high goals, but, on the other hand, it also prevents him from concentrating on his lessons and homework. When he meets Johnny, a professional football player, Cameron finds out that education is very important. He admires Johnny for his achievements and he wants to be like him one day.

Johnathon J. Smith based his book on his own experience as a young athlete because he felt that children need to learn that football will not support them for the rest of their lives. So, when their football career ends, what will they do? This is where education comes into play, because they can always use what they learned in order to find another job, or even to open their own business. One of the lessons Cameron learns from Johnny is that reading is very important for personal growth. As long as you read, you’ll always be rich and you’ll always be smart and creative enough to find a way to earn money.

“Dare to Dream, Play to Win” is scheduled for release this November. Until then, you can check the author’s website and find him on LinkedIn, where you can learn more about him, about his future projects, and his goal to help children and athletes.… (altro)