SUBSCRIBE<\/a><\/p>\nThe visit highlighted the power of literacy and the impact students can have with their writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWriting matters, their letters mattered, he listened and he did it,\u201d Riekkoff said.<\/p>\n
Getting kids excited about reading<\/p>\n
Kelly, who visits about 25 elementary schools each year, said his goal is to inspire both reading and writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting them excited about reading because they\u2019re really at an important part in their reading journey and sharing chapter books like the Ballpark Mysteries are really helpful because they get kids comfortable with reading. It gets them familiar with the characters and the locations and the setup, but they can have new books with those same characters that take them on new adventures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During visits with schools, he teaches students about the editing and feedback process before a book is done.<\/p>\n
He tells children about his \u201cunusual progression\u201d to becoming an author. He started out in a career in technology and computer science and wrote white papers and case studies.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I wasn\u2019t a good writer in school, when I was working in technology, I became a good writer by working at it. And I realized if I worked at it, I could become a good writer. I did, and then I ended up writing a lot about business and technology in a variety of ways,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n
It was after seeing his two sons, who were in elementary school at the time, playing baseball and reading mysteries and sports books, that a light bulb flashed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt occurred to me that would be kind of fun to put all those things together. So, I had this idea for creating a series of mysteries set in baseball stadiums, and that\u2019s what became the Ballpark Mysteries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As an author, receiving letters from Horizon Elementary felt rewarding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful when I find teachers and students or schools that are really engaged with my books or the ideas of my books, and they take care enough to write to me or invite me to their school to do a presentation or spend some time with me on a virtual visit through Zoom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kelly said he was able to visit Milwaukee and do some research on the team and ballpark before writing the books.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fun to complete that circle after having received, I\u2019m going to say three, four, possibly five letters,\u201d Kelly said. Kelly is already writing about football mysteries and has plans to write a Green Bay Packers-themed mystery.<\/p>\n
For aspiring writers, Kelly encourages reading to become a better writer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps you learn to understand language and use it better. So reading is really important. The second piece of advice is to write. It\u2019s always hard to sit down with a blank piece of paper, but I find that if you start writing, once you start, it\u2019s easier to keep writing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEWAUKEE \u2014 For years, third-grade students in Cate Riekkoff\u2019s class at Horizon Elementary School wrote persuasive letters to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[79900,5,136,79902,57165,181,79901,843,59,4280,4,79903],"class_list":["post-618268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milwaukee-brewers","tag-ballpark-mysteries","tag-baseball","tag-brewers","tag-cate-riekkoff","tag-david-a-kelly","tag-front-page","tag-horizon-elementary","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-milwaukeebrewers","tag-mlb","tag-pewaukee"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116209926765864877","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/61d89fe11e2cb.image-e128b1fdc9e08421be6ae14a075fc326.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n