As Bob Dylan once said, The times they are a changin. Enter into the world of Christopher Quinn who reached an awakening at the tender age of twelve through dalliances into the adult world, his estranged relationship with his sixth grade teacher and his dream to be a member of the Little League All Star team. The year is 2015 and Christopher Quinn is the principal of a middle school in Salem County, NJ. When two girls in the school come to blows over a boy they both had their first sexual encounter, he begins to reflect on his choices as a young man of the same age. As he is trying to handle the situation between the two girls, he makes a long lost connection with his former sixth grade teacher, Ms. Justice, who is the grandmother of one of the girls. When he sees her, he immediately flashes back in time to the fall of 1978 and his defiance toward the rules, his ever growing fascination with sex, and his need to feel like a winner growing up on the wrong side of the tracks. The story takes place in the rural part of Southern NJ where the landscape is dotted by patches of woods with swaths of farmland in between. It was a time when kids lived to be outside and learning to discover new things with one another through their experiences was always an adventure. There were places to roam and as long as you were out sight, parents didnt mind. The most critical advice that Chris receives is from his best friends stepbrother who tells him that every chance you pass up will be one that you never get again. Upon hearing those words, he becomes enlightened and this mantra will become the driving force in his life each time he is confronted with a choice. Chris relies on and trusts his best friend with all of his secrets and as each day goes by, together they find they are pushing the limits of what the definition of childhood should be. They are constantly in search of entertainment and their quest to be like the teenagers in the neighborhood lead to situations that conflict with their parents as well their conscience. Each choice that they make it becomes harder to decide on which side of the line they want to be. When Chris is forced to stay after school by his mother who has hopes that her son will one day go to college, he soon finds that Ms. Justice is becoming more than just a teacher to him. His reluctance soon grows into an infatuation with her as each session becomes more and more personal. Through a variety of circumstances, the relationship between Ms. Justice and Chris develops to one where the barriers between the teacher and the student become blurred. The confusion and the angst begins to take its toll on him as he finds his desire to be more grown up leaves him with more questions than answers. Through a weaving and interlacing of incidents and experiences, he gains wisdom from each time he says yes though his conscience wrestles with him as it screams no. It begins to chip away at any sense of the innocence that remains within him and as each time he moves across the line, the toll gets higher. His head first dive into the adult world of everyone around him conflicts with his sense of security that he only wants to be a kid. Things come to a head in the summer of 79 as he earns his spot onto the South Vineland All Stars where his goal to be like the winners of the world leads him to contemplate the meaning of it all and if he was anymore the wiser than when he started this journey. This is a story for those who lived through those times and those who heard their parents talk about them. In The All Star, readers will find connections to a time that once was and the high drama found in between the lines on the diamond and off of the field. The All Star will take you deeper into the realities of what it meant to be a twelve year old in the late 70s and the good old days that everyone seems to be so nostalgic for from their memories.