His first published Young Adult novel, The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin (Random House, 2010) won a Parent's Choice Silver Medal and was named "a best book of 2010 for teens" by Amazon and Kirkus Reviews.
He has served as a professor of English, writing, and young adult literature at several colleges and is an active member of the Society for American Baseball Research.
It was described by School Library Journal as "[a] coming-of-age mash-up of satire, realistic fiction, mystery, and ill-fated teen romance."
His second young adult novel, Guy Langman: Crime Scene Procrastinator, received positive reviews from School Library Journal, Booklist, and Kirkus.
Strike Three, You're Dead was an Edgar Award finalist and a selection for the New York Public Library's 2013 "Books for Reading and Sharing".