Playing goalie in soccer is at the core of Paul's life, and he gets to do it on two teams, one of which is a mixture of boys and girls. Paul also struggles mightily to lead a normal life and to see things as they really are despite the thick-framed glasses that cover his injured eyes. As Bloor once explained: "Paul lives in constant fear of his evil older brother, Erik. Set in the tangerine-growing region of Florida, the novel touches on environmental and social issues while exploring the trials of its legally blind, soccer-playing protagonist, Paul Fisher. Then the place fills up with large houses and with people whose only common bond is that they qualified for the same amount of mortgage money." Upset by the changing landscape, Bloor asked himself: "Who are the people who used to make a go of it here? Who are the people now making their exit while we're making our entrance? And how do they feel about all this?"īloor addresses such questions in his debut novel, 1997's Tangerine. A developer erects a wall, thinks of a theme, and gives the place a name. After that, a completely different place is created, a place as fictional as any novel. This is how it happens: The citrus trees are uprooted and bulldozed into piles the piles are set on fire the charred remains of the trees are buried, and tons of white sand are dumped over their graves. As he once recalled: "To my dismay, I watched the daily destruction of the citrus groves along this route. He began his career in children's publishing in 1986, and came up with the idea for his first novel while commuting to work on Florida's back roads west of Orlando. In the meantime, Bloor graduated from college, then worked for three years as a teacher. I continued my soccer playing through high school, on a really good team, and into college, on a really bad team." Bloor's memories of the game eventually found their way into his fiction. I was one of those little kids trying desperately to kick a soccer ball amidst the multilingual howling.
Parents of the children on these teams raged and howled at the games as if their national pride was at stake. "Different ethnic communities -Poles, Italians, Germans, Ukrainians -all had their kids' soccer clubs. So I decided to try it myself."īorn in 1950, Bloor was raised in Trenton, New Jersey, and recalled that, during his childhood, soccer reigned supreme. As Bloor once told SATA: "My teaching job led to a job in educational publishing, where I was actually required to sit and read young adult novels all day long. Work in ProgressĪ former high school English teacher, Edward Bloor has managed to find time while working as a book editor at a major publishing house and helping to raise his two children to pen three well-received novels for teen readers: Crusader, Story Time, and the award-winning debut novel Tangerine.
Tangerine was adapted as an audiobook, Recorded Books, 2001. Tangerine, Harcourt Brace ( San Diego, CA), 1997.Ĭrusader, Harcourt Brace ( San Diego, CA), 1999. Named among Books in the Middle Outstanding Titles of 1997, named on Voice of Youth Advocates and Horn Book honor lists, named to Pick of the List, American Booksellers Association, and among 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, New York Public Library, all 1997, and Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults and Best Books for Young Adults citations, American Library Association, and Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination for Best Young Adult Novel, all 1998, all for Tangerine. English teacher in Florida public high schools, 1983-86 Harcourt Brace School Publishers, Orlando, FL, senior editor, beginning 1986. Home - 12021 Windstone St., Winter Garden, FL 34787. Education: Fordham University, B.A., 1973. Born October 12, 1950, in Trenton, NJ son of Edward William and Mary (Cowley) Bloor married Pamelaĭixon (a teacher), Augchildren: Amanda Kristin, Spencer Dixon.
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