Mark Ricketts

In 1993 Mark Andrew Ricketts was assigned a Health presentation at West Chester University. He chose to do a sock puppet show. Socco (Sock-o) and Slurpie were born.

Years later, the school district that he works in as a health and physical education teacher asked him to include Language Arts in his Health and P.E. lessons. He immediately thought of using Socco and Slurpie as characters in adventures that would be based on skills and concepts learned by his students in class.

This led to him finding illustrators who were willing to bring his books to life. The end result are fun stories that can be read solely for enjoyment and make parents and children alike smile at the end. They can also be used by parents or teachers to encourage children to be active as the story progresses using the ideas and actions presented in the story.

He currently reads parts of them throughout lessons to help the students enjoy and remember what was learned in class even more as they use their imaginations. The stories still make him laugh and that's what matters most.

He has been a physical education teacher at Lorane Elementary School in Reading, PA since the fall of 1997 and added teaching Health in 2017. He renewed his interest in children's books as he read stories to his daughters. He found that the ones that made him laugh were the most memorable.

He hopes you have a chance to read his stories and come away with a smile. He has more to come as he finds new illustrators to help bring them to you. Keep a lookout for more Socco and Slurpie adventures. Enjoy.