‘Right Thing to Do’ taking off, headed to The Kelly Clarkson Show

by Jim Boyle

Editor

The sale of the popular children’s book “The Right Thing to Do” authored by KSTP Sports Director Joe Schmit that was inspired by Minnesota Twins legend and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Mauer is off to a great start, but the first 10,000 copies of the book may just be the tip of the iceberg needed to satisfy demand.

Schmit and Mauer filmed a segment for The Kelly Clarkson Show this week that will air March 28 to coincide with the MLB’s Opening Day. The syndicated show airs at 2 p.m. on KSTP in the Minneapolis metropolitan area.

Schmit calls the segment being prepared for a national audience short and sweet but nice and impactful.

Half of all the proceeds from the book are going to Mauer’s favorite charity, the Highland Friendship Club, which founded in 2002 to meet the needs of people with disabilities for social interaction with their peers and community members.

The other half are going to Thumbs Up, a 10-year-old Elk River organization dedicated to bringing awareness to mental health and providing support and resources to all.

Schmit has already got the book into the hands of 500 elementary school principals at a principals association meeting where he spoke.

There was also a book signing on March 2 at the Thumbs Up offices and center in Elk River that gave people a chance to meet Schmit and Kevin Cannon, the book’s illustrator. More than 100 people came out to the event that was sponsored by Brighter Day Grief Center, and $2,100 was raised through book sales.

“The book open house was a great success, and we were happy with the turnout,” said Katie Shatusky, Thumbs Up’s executive director. “It was so great to have Joe Schmit and Kevin Cannon at Thumbs Up signing autographs for the community. We are so grateful for the continued support in Elk River and the surrounding communities.”

Among the visitors were Darren and Melissa Bohlsen. Melissa is a new board member of Thumbs Up and her husband, Darren, is a former Rogers police officer who now works in Corcoran, where he sometimes visits elementary schools to read to students. It’s just one example of the way this book will be introduced to children across Minnesota and beyond.

The book is already a bestseller of sorts with over 7,500 books sold in its first four weeks of sales. Schmit said he has realized that the book he wrote is more of a gift than anything else.

“I cannot tell you how many grandparents, aunts and uncles, great-aunts and uncles, neighbors, they’re buying this book for their kids,” he said. “It’s amazing to see that everybody wants to spread values found in the book.”

The book can be purchased at www.joemauerbook.com. The site states: “But long before (Mauer) was one of the best-ever Major League Baseball players, he was making an impact with kindness and compassion. Based on true stories, the new book “The Right Thing to Do” follows Joe Mauer as he grows from a child athlete to a baseball superstar—and learns to be a good friend along the way.”

A part of the book details a true story about Mauer during his senior year of high school and how he walked a student, Mike Hally, who was blind, to the lunchroom every day and invited Hally to sit down with him and his friends at lunch. Mauer said the two found out they had a lot of the same interests and formed a strong bond.

It’s a great book for kids in elementary school and even younger.

“I get emails from principals almost on a daily basis telling me that they have read the book to, in some cases, the entire school and, in other cases, several grades at once,” Schmit said. ”And it’s opened up discussions, so that’s pretty rewarding.”

Schmit said his first surprise was just how beautiful the book is.

“Kevin did an amazing job,” Schmit said of the illustrator.

Book’s message has ability to change lives, illustrator says

Cannon, a Minnesota cartoonist and illustrator who grew up in St. Louis Park, has been amazed at the impact of the book.

“It has been incredible, to be honest,” he told the Star News. “I’ve worked for 20 years, and I never had been a part of a project that’s had this much impact in the state and now even nationally.”

Cannon is best known for his detailed cartoon maps in the Star Tribune as well as his humorous all-ages graphic novel, “The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy.”

Cannon’s art career began at a very early age, drawing with Mr. Sketch markers on scraps of foam core from his uncle’s photography studio. He went on to study studio art at Grinnell College in Iowa, and resettled in Minneapolis after short stints living in London and Manhattan, according to his website at http://kevincannon.org/.

Schmit picked Cannon to be his illustrator from a stable of artists that work for Wise Ink Media. When the Minnesota native was asked if he wanted to work on a book with Joe Schmit and Joe Mauer, he answered in the affirmative immediately.

He spends about half his year doing children’s books, and the other half doing a lot of cartoons.

He said he became a Twins fan when a friend, who was a big baseball fan, gave him a baseball card in 1987.

“It was a good year to become a Twins fan,” he recalled and chuckled.

Cannon has illustrated about 20 children’s books; his first was completed in 2010 and was about pond hockey.

Cannon said this book’s message has the ability to change lives, and it was one of his harder projects to work on and complete by the deadline.

“The stakes were higher because ... we knew about Joe’s possible induction into the Hall of Fame,” Cannon said.

There was a rush to get the book done before the Hall of Fame inductions were announced.

The timing could not have worked better.

The book came out two days after Mauer was selected on his first ballot. Schmit has since gotten a call of sorts from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“The Baseball Hall of Fame has the largest baseball book library in the world, and they wanted a copy of the book for their library,” Schmit said. “And they also had me ship out a couple of boxes of books and they’re now selling it in their gift shop.

“This was kind of a big thrill for me personally, because as a kid I dreamed about playing professional baseball and maybe someday making it to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Well, it took me a lifetime, but I made it.”