<p>Robertt Z. Hicks grew up on a farm in central Michigan in the ‘1940s’, and had many delightful experiences, especially with wild critters. A collection of those memories, paired with poems inspired by them, are compiled in <em>Once I Was A Kid, With The Wild Things On the Farm.</em></p><p><br>Bob retired after teaching speed communication twenty-four years at the University of Hawaii. Mr. Bob’s vision is to create fun rhyming stories for children to help them learn to read, and to spark a life-long love of reading. He delights to hear that children are asking for his books again and again.</p><p><br>Bob’s first book, <em>Tommie Turtle’s Secret,</em> won several awards, including Best Children’s and Book of the Year in the Florida Writer’s Association’s Royal Palm Awards competition. Bob's second book, <em>Mouse in the Manger, </em>was a Finalist in both the Royal Palm competition and the USA Best Books Award.</p><p><br>During his high school years, Bob was paralyzed and had to turn to learning verbal skills. Bob earned a bachelor of arts degree from Michigan State, and masters degrees from the Universities of Michigan and Hawaii. Bob taught speech communication three years at Penn State, and twenty-four years at the University of Hawaii.</p><p><br>Bob and his wife Betty reside in New Port Richey Florida, and can be contacted at RobertZHicks.com</p><p><br></p>
