Author whose book inspired Jack’s Chattanoggins visits
An author whose young-adult fiction inspired a Chattanooga child to begin a charity will be in Chattanooga on Monday, Sept. 12. An Evening With Jordan Sonnenblick is scheduled from 7 until 8:30 p.m. in Baylor School’s Alumni Chapel.
Sonnenblick is the author of seven books for children and young adults, including “Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie,” which Baylor head librarian Julie King describes as “the moving story of an eighth-grade boy whose younger brother is battling leukemia.”
The book inspired Jack Skowronnek to create Jack’s Chattanoggins, an annual head shaving event that promotes awareness of children battling cancer and raises funds for the Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital at Erlanger. Skowronnek, now a senior at Signal Mountain High School, was 10 when he read the book and decided to shave his head to support children with cancer. He has since raised $175,000 through Chattanoggins.
Skowronnek will be at Monday’s event to introduce Sonnenblick. They previously met in June 2014, when Sonnenblick flew to Chattanooga for the fifth annual head-shaving at Chattanooga Market.
Sonnenblick’s presentation will include a question-and-answer session and book signing. Erlanger officials will be on hand to answer questions about the expansion plans for a new Children’s Hospital.