{"id":2389,"date":"2025-09-04T22:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T22:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/2389\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T22:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T22:48:08","slug":"lawrence-bookworms-can-look-for-local-easter-eggs-in-sarah-hennings-upcoming-sports-romance-for-young-readers-the-lawrence-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/2389\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawrence bookworms can look for local Easter eggs in Sarah Henning\u2019s upcoming sports romance for young readers \u2013 The Lawrence Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Share this post or save for later<\/p>\n

Sarah Henning plans for \u201cRunning Back to You,\u201d her upcoming sports romance for young readers, to launch not with a whimper but with the bang of the starter pistol.<\/p>\n

Fans will celebrate the book during a launch event at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the Raven Book Store, 809 Massachusetts St. Though no actual starter guns will be present, Henning will be in conversation with Jordan Rose, head track and field coach at Free State High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cRunning Back to You\u201d is an upper middle grade title geared toward 13- and 14-year-old readers. Despite high school freshman Millie\u2019s strict honesty principles, she gets wrapped up in a lie about a first kiss that never happened. Millie and her best friend devise a plan for her to get the kiss by joining the track team, where, fingers crossed, she\u2019ll woo her brother\u2019s best friend, a long-distance runner. When she ends up on the hurdle team with a different boy she\u2019s butted heads with, chaos ensues.<\/p>\n

Henning grew up as a gymnast and distance runner in track and cross-country, before a career as a sports journalist morphed into a gig as a bestselling author. She gets the tangible reality of how sports shape kids\u2019 lives \u2014 not the airbrushed fantasy we see in much teen fiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"Molly Adams \/ Lawrence Times<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a lot of teen romance, the jocks are stereotypical jocks,\u201d Henning said. \u201cThey\u2019re dumb, or it\u2019s sort of like a means to an end for a kid to be really fit, you know, like boys to have washboard abs or whatever, because they play football. And then you never actually see them doing the sport, which is a big part of their lives. So I love on-the-page sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henning intentionally writes girls out on the field because they don\u2019t often star as jocks in fiction. That\u2019s been a \u201cboys\u2019 arena for so long,\u201d she said. Readers will have a feast of sports writing featuring a female athlete in \u201cRunning Back to You\u201d \u2014 so much so that Henning\u2019s editor had to make some track scene cuts.<\/p>\n

Henning has honed her scenes with an intensity she equates to writing a fight scene. As a runner herself, she understands that elements of the sport can become overly routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cFiguring out ways to make it not feel episodic or boring, especially when you\u2019re doing repetitive things like hurdling \u2014 it\u2019s a fun challenge,\u201d Henning said. <\/p>\n

\"\"Molly Adams \/ Lawrence Times Some of Henning\u2019s books, displayed in her home office. Many of these titles feature teen girl main characters in sports.<\/p>\n

When she started writing the book, her son was a 14-year-old track and field athlete. Henning would attend his meets and soak it all in, asking questions and taking notes. Ultimately, she called in a favor with Rose, a friend and neighbor, to provide early feedback on the book.<\/p>\n

Rose said Henning strove to capture realism that kids would relate to, from realistic exercises for young athletes to a compelling storyline of female friendship. The FSHS teacher particularly appreciates a sports writer who can appeal to all of the senses, capturing the feel of the track off the starting blocks and the sound of the starter pistol.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe (Henning) notices a lot of those little details \u2026 that I think when you\u2019re incorporating some of that into your writing, I think it really puts the reader more into the scene,\u201d Rose said.<\/p>\n

Henning aims to draw in a particular audience: 13- and 14-year-olds who are largely absent from the bookshelves.<\/p>\n

Most middle grade fiction, like her book \u201cMonster Camp,\u201d<\/a> is meant for readers ages 8 to 12. Then the market jumps to young adult, where protagonists are often 16 or older, driving cars and applying to college.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First kisses, like the one in question in \u201cRunning Back to You,\u201d might seem childish to an older teen or too mature for an 8-year-old bookworm. But for the 13 to 14 age group, \u201cit\u2019s a big deal,\u201d Henning said. There\u2019s a lack of titles that take that seriously.<\/p>\n

The book\u2019s age range designation isn\u2019t precluding other readers from picking up the story, though. Rose is part of an FSHS teacher book club, and \u201cRunning Back to You\u201d is their selection this semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Hey, guys, we have a Free State parent who wrote this book that talked about our track program,\u2019\u201d Rose said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not called Free State, obviously, but there\u2019s a lot of stuff in there that\u2019s kind of hometowny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence readers, especially students at FSHS, might be rewarded by a particularly close reading of the book. They might even recognize the fictional school\u2019s mascot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a Firebird, but we got Ernie the Eagle, might look a little like the Firebird,\u201d Henning said, who mentioned that the fictional school yearbook is also called \u201cThe Wing.\u201d Fans of Henning\u2019s oeuvre may have noticed past Easter eggs, like a certain Coach Rose mentioned in \u201cThe Lies We Conjure,\u201d<\/a> a 2025 Kansas Notable Book<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Molly Adams \/ Lawrence Times<\/p>\n

The author currently doesn\u2019t plan to place a book in Lawrence due to tricky logistics \u2014 the wish fulfillment of having a 13-year-old character walk to a made-up putt putt course after school is too enticing. But living in this town has shaped her career indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Local author titles Henning recommends<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cBlood Moon<\/a>\u201d by Britney S. Lewis: A paranormal YA romance from a Kansas City author featuring a Black girl lead in a classic vampire-werewolf love triangle. Coming Sept. 9<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cIt Had to Be Him<\/a>\u201d by Adib Khorram: A queer second-chance romance for adults from a Kansas City author<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cFlirting with Murder<\/a>\u201d by Amanda Sellet: A funny and flirty cozy mystery for YA readers, set in a Florida retirement home. Coming April 21, 2026<\/p>\n

Like authors Amanda Sellet<\/a> and Tessa Gratton<\/a>, Henning has found comfort in a stronghold of local writers banding together to weather national publishing trends. Not to mention, she loves the literary history of Lawrence, which played host to William Burroughs in his twilight years and saw the birth of Langston Hughes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawrence definitely bleeds into everything that I do,\u201d Henning said.<\/p>\n

For more information on the book launch for \u201cRunning Back to You,\u201d see the event page here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the event, Henning will have a giveaway for an Ad Astra Running gift card for people who preordered the book. <\/p>\n

Folks who preorder through the Raven<\/a> by the end of Monday, Sept. 8 will get a signed and personalized copy as well as a broadside made by a Raven bookseller.<\/p>\n

\"\"Molly Adams \/ Lawrence Times<\/p>\n

\"\"Molly Adams \/ Lawrence Times Dash<\/p>\n

\"\"Molly Adams \/ Lawrence Times Pearl<\/p>\n

\"\"Molly Adams \/ Lawrence Times<\/p>\n

If our local journalism matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss a beat \u2026 Click here to sign up for our email newsletters<\/p>\n

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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they\/them), community reporter, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com. <\/p>\n

Read their complete bio here<\/a>. Read their work for the Times\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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