'Luna-Tikes' Author Broaches Tough Topics For Children

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - American hero Pat Tillman's younger brother is making a name for himself, not on the football field... but in the pages of colorful new children's books.

In the eleven years after Pat's death, Richard Tillman tried his hand at acting, standup comedy and even screen writing. But nothing proved more challenging than his job as Mr. Mom.

"My wife came home and my son Gus was completely out of his mind that day, and she asked how my day was. I said this kid is a luna tike!"

Tillman says the play off lunatic stuck and soon he was creating the "Luna-Tikes" children's clothing line with friend Mike Thompson.

"He suggested writing kids books for all the characters I was coming up with for all the clothes. And then I just started writing books."

The next thing he knew, Tillman had cranked out 15 "Luna-Tike" books, each with a character facing their own set of unique problems.

"One of my characters is Harry Hockey who is overweight and never gets picked to be on teams," he said. "It makes no bones about the stuff that he deals with on a day-to-day basis."

Tillman wanted to deal with topics that may be tough to broach with children.

"Some of them kinda touch on aggression. This way I could teach my kids, give them great characters and people they would like and unbeknownst to them, they are actually learning."

Tillman said the books are fun for adults as well. The books are available at LunaTikes.com or on Amazon.com and are out in hardcover next year.

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