Big Cheese Racing Series

Racing to Belong
(first in the Big Cheese Racing Series)

Sam Piper would rather change a tire than read a book, but books are all he gets from his mom for his eleventh birthday. Then his absent father comes through with a dream come true--the chance to go amateur kart racing. Sam is soon faced with the impossible task of living up to Dad's racing expectations while feeling alienated from his mom at home. To make matters worse, he makes an enemy with the track's star racer and most obnoxious bully. To gain his father's respect, acceptance from the other racers and to discover his true family, Sam must race for the win . . . or lose everything.


To learn more about Racing to Belong, also known as Kart Racer, contact Sara Shafer at SaraShafer@rocketmail.com.

Cast of Characters

• Sam Piper (Racing to Belong) loves dirt and grease, being outside and working with anything mechanical. He can't stand sitting inside. School is torture for him, which his mother and stepfather don't understand. He loves going to Big Cheese Raceway where he can do all the things he loves and race the kart. Sam tries very hard to please his parents, but his father's unreasonable racing expectations and his mother's preference for quiet, indoor activities leaves Sam feeling that nothing he does is ever good enough.

• Tyler Gray (Racing to Quit) is Sam's best friend at Big Cheese Raceway. He is a brilliant mechanic and loves tinkering with his kart. His father wants him to be a star kart racer, but racing is torture to Tyler. He would be perfectly happy to spend his days in the repair shop and never drive on a race track again.

• Ace Hoffman (Racing to Win) is Big Cheese Raceway's two-time kart racing champion. He's earned a reputation as a dirty racer for taking out his competitors instead of racing them cleanly. Ace wants to change his reputation and make friends on the track, but his dad pushes him to focus one hundred percent on racing. Winning is everything to his dad. Ace doesn't like to lose either. But he's also lonely and unhappy and resents his father for managing every minute of his life.

• Aubrey Larson (Racing Like a Girl) is Big Cheese Raceway's top female racer. Because she's a girl, she feels like she has to constantly prove herself to the boys and dads at the race track. She's good, but because she's always fighting to be taken seriously, she never takes time to relax and have fun.

• Joshua Jakowski (Racing Scared) is Sam's stepbrother. Joshua buries himself in the fiction world of the book he reads, so he doesn't have to face the chaos and the heartache in his real life. He would never drive a kart like Sam. That's much too dangerous. A little real life adventure at the race track is just what Joshua needs to bring him out of his shell!

• Jake Jakowski is Sam's little brother. Right now, he's still too young to go kart racing, but he already has his heart set on following in his big brother's footsteps and doing exactly what Sam does when he grows up.

• Jocelyn Jakowski is Sam's baby sister. She might just be a baby, but she already has a bad case of hero worship for her big brother. She just might grow up wanting to race too.