Embedded Files
Book Trailers
Book trailer for Shadowed.
Audiobook sample of chapter one of Shadowed.
About the Author
Carl Deuker was raised in Redwood City, California. As a young boy, her spent many hours exploring outside. As he got older, he participated in sports. He was good enough to make most teams, but not good enough to play much. He says, "I was too slow and too short for basketball; I was too small for football, too frightened to hang in against a good fastball. So by my senior year the only sport I was still playing was golf."
Carl attended the University of California, Berkeley. He majored in English and spent many hours reading the classics and writing poetry and stories.
As an adult, he taught for more than twenty years in the Northshore School District near Seattle and spent some time in the newspaper business.
He is the author of many books. See below for some of his most popular books!
Quick Facts:
Residence: Seattle (Ballard neighborhood)
Birthplace: San Francisco @ St. Francis Hospital
Grade School: St. Pius, Redwood City CA
High School: St. Francis, Mountain View CA
College: University of California A.B. English - University of Washington MA English - UCLA Teaching Credential
Favorite food: Phad Thai
Favorite desert: Chocolate ice cream
Favorite movie: Some Like It Hot (this changes weekly)
Favorite book: Moby Dick
Favorite poet: Emily Dickinson
Favorite sport: Golf
Favorite teams: Mariners, (Sonics--now sadly off in Oklahoma wearing strange uniforms), Seahawks, Cal Golden Bears, UW Huskies, Williams Purple Cows/Ephs
Least Favorite Team: Dodgers!!!!
*Information taken from: https://carldeuker.ag-sites.net/bio.htm
An Interview with a Truman Committe Member:
Is there a "fun fact" about the book or the series that readers might not know?
I don’t know if this qualifies as a “fun” fact, but the episode at the Nooksack river is very much autobiographical. While in college, I had a roommate who was a high school swimmer. I'd call myself an okay swimmer, but In every other sport, I was the better athlete.
We went to the Russian river, rented a canoe, put the life jackets in the bottom of the boat, and promptly flipped the boat in white water. I was struggling to keep my head above the churning water and just managed to reach out and grab a limb that was hanging over the river, my heart pounding, feeling that I just cheated death. Right then, I heard my friend yell out from the opposite shore–”Hey, grab the paddle!”--which was floating by. I let that paddle slide right by me–nothing was getting to pry my fingers off that limb. My friend's nonchalance wasn't fake: at no time did he feel he was in danger nor did he ever suspect that I was.
Since then, I’ve read more than once that young males drown at high rates. They (like me) get it in their heads that because they’re good athletes, they’ll be fine. They also (like me) don’t want to lose face by putting on a life jacket. So, one of the main points I hope readers take away from Shadowed is the basic one: put on a life jacket and have some humility.
Do you have a brief message or piece of advice for the middle-school students in Missouri who are reading your book this year?
Short message: The second part of Shadowed gave me fits. I wrote it as a continuation of the narrative first part, but that didn’t always feel right. Next, I wrote it as letters to Lucas, but that didn’t always feel right. The editor of the book looked over both versions and said: “Do both. Have it be letters to Lucas when that feels right, have it be a narrative when it doesn’t.” This may seem an obvious solution, but it never came to me. So I suppose my bit of advice would be: we work best when we work together.
About the Book
Beloved, award-winning author Carl Deuker serves up another fast-paced sports novel—this one about basketball and friendship.
Nate plays soccer, but he doesn’t love it. He plays because it’s what his family expects.
Then Lucas Cawley moves in across the street. Lucas isn’t like any of Nate’s sports friends—he’s poor, his parents are mostly absent, and he’s devoted to his sister, Megan, who has a learning disability. Lucas may be an outcast at school, but he and Nate find common ground in their fierce games of one-on-one basketball.
It’s not long before Nate realizes that basketball is his sport. But Nate has an ax to grind with star players Colin and Bo, who have disrespected him for years. Nate believes that outplaying those two is the most important thing . . . until he learns that life is about more than getting ready for the next game.
Praise for Shadowed:
Junior Library Guild's 2025 Sport Selection
Selected by educational and library professionals to be on the following state reading lists:
Iowa Teen Award (2026-2027), Grades 6-8
Missouri Truman Readers Award (2026-2027), Grades 6-8
Pennslyvania Mountain Laurel Book Award, 2025-2026, Young Adult
Rhode Island Teen Book Award (2026), Grades 9-12
Texas Lone Star Reading List (2026), Grades 6-8
Resources/Teaching Ideas
This website has information about the author, book guides, activities, lessons, and vocabulary resources over Shadowed.
Social Media
Carl welcomes fan letters and will always write back. He prefers e-mail because he replies more quickly: cdeuker@gmail.com.
@carldeuker
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