Deer Valley High teacher publishes book about coming of age

By Roni Gehlke
For the Contra Costa Times

As a high school science teacher Jeff Adkins knows that a teacher is an important role model to teenagers. While that idea may have become clearer to him in the last 12 years of teaching at Deer Valley High School, the lesson was taught to him as a teenager himself after meeting a teacher who changed his life. His experiences during that time in his life became the inspiration of a newly published coming of age novel penned by Adkins called "The Boy Who Skipped".

After receiving a teacher award in 2007, Adkins was asked what prompted him to become a teacher.
"I remembered how my high school theater teacher had encouraged me to get into teaching and how my life was colored from that time period in my life," Adkins said.

It was then he decided to put his memories down on paper before too much time passed and he forgot all of the important details. He even went so far as to contact the teacher he remembered and asked her for her opinion.

Adkins calls "The Boy Who Skipped" an "almost" autobiography.

"Most of the story is about my life, but I've changed the names of the characters and combined two or three of the people into one character so it wouldn't be so complicated," he said.

In the book Adkins tells the story of a 13-year-old boy, renamed Jeff Mason, who lives within the Appalachia area of Eastern Kentucky where Adkins grew up in the 1970s. The story tells of the lonely life of a boy approaching his teen years living in the isolation of the Kentucky back hills.

The boy is invited to participate in his school's play, "The Taming of the Shrew." In the book Mason meets a fellow student and seeks her affection. As in Adkins' real life, the boy is helped by his drama teacher and mentor.

Adkins describes "The Boy Who Skipped" as a story of the underdog seeking to triumph against seemingly impossible odds," he said. "The novel is based on my life growing up as a science geek with a romantic heart."

While he believes young adults and older readers will enjoy this book, he said high school students would relate to it as well. While this book takes place more than 30 years ago, the references and emotions are still the same today.

This isn't the first writing endeavor for Adkins. He previously published informational books on astronomy. This book, however, is certainly written more from the heart, he said.
Next up, Adkins plans to work on the next book in his astronomy series. After that, he isn't sure if he will do another book like the "The Boy Who Skipped," but he said he did enjoy the experience of writing it.

Adkins said that he will be working to find places to do book signings and speak on the book in the next few months. To purchase a copy of the book go to the publisher's website at www.lulu.com/spotlight/astronomyteacher.