So Flat, So Deep, So Far

This fictional story is one of a broad appeal, telling of a host of desert animals, their lives, travails and ultimate friendships. While they manage together the situation of a man in their midst, the dramatic and sudden need of one of their friends in the desert brings them together in another common cause - and the real hero will be a surprise!

About the Author

Gary Adams received his master's degree from UCLA in 1964 and has written several children's books, including The Ladybug Story and So Flat, So Deep, So Far.

His initial interest in writing children's stories began by telling his five daughters bedtime stories as they were growing up. From those stories, The Little Clock With No Hands was born.

Gary Adams may be unique among most writers, as most of his seventy years was spent either playing baseball or coaching baseball. Gary was the captain of the UCLA baseball team, for whom he played from 1959 to 1962.

Afterwards, he became a college baseball coach, coaching for forty-one years (thirty years as the head baseball coach at UCLA). He retired in 2004 as the "winningest" coach in UCLA history with 1,172 wins. He coached forty-four major league players while at UCLA (second most in collegiate baseball history), and he was inducted into the prestigious NCAA Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.

Gary lives with his wife, Sandy, on a small ranch in Bear Valley Springs, California, where he manages his own small vineyard.

About The Illustrator

Kimberly Atkins attended Otis Parsons Art Institute in Los Angeles, California. She is the author's daughter, one of five daughters who listened to her father's bed-time stories as she was growing up.

Kimberly has captured the essence and vitality of each character and the territories in her superb water color paintings for "So Flat, So Deep, So Far".

She is married to Dan Atkins and lives in Newbury Park, California with their two children, Mason and Rachel.