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Author helps grads prepare for lifes mechanical maladies
HelpForGrads-Portable Dad
“The Portable Dad: Fix-it Advice for When Dad’s Not Around”
TURLOCK – As thousands of area high school and college graduates look proudly toward their futures, one local author also helps them focus on the nuts and bolts of life - literally.

Steve Elliott’s new book, “The Portable Dad: Fix-it Advice for When Dad’s Not Around,” helps young adults keep all their stuff working so they can concentrate on better things.

Elliott will be signing copies of the book at the Barnes & Noble on Pacific Avenue in Stockton on May 30 from 1:30 to 3 p.m.

“The book is written for college students and 20-somethings,” Elliott said. “It’s the essential guide for anyone leaving home or moving out on their own.”
 
The Portable Dad is A humorous how-to-use-it and how-to-fix-it guide covering everything a typical 18-to-28-year-old has: a car, computer, bicycle and apartment. It also offers great practical tips on things young adults will be doing for the first time – like moving, painting, furnishing an apartment, taking care of a yard and shopping in hardware stores.

“I realized when my kids went to college they were academically prepared, but not very well mechanically prepared for life on their own,” Elliott said. “I wrote the book to give them the critical information they needed to know to take care of their stuff and be more independent.”

Running Press in Philadelphia saw the broader need for The Portable Dad.
“The book illustrates a trend – the loss of mechanical understanding of the world around us,” said Melissa Appleby at Running Press. “Today’s students face tougher academic requirements than ever, but many have never taken a shop class or seen something break that could be fixed. They understand physics but have never opened the hoods of their cars. Steve’s book gives them the information they need to do that. And it’s funny.”

Elliott grew up in Merced and was a 1992 graduate of California State University, Stanislaus. He’s the son-in-law of former San Joaquin County Schools Superintendent Gaylord A Nelson and was a reporter for The Turlock Journal, Modesto Bee and Fresno Bee for many years. He now lives and writes in Calaveras County.

For more information, visit www.theportabledad.com. The Portable Dad sells for $12.95 and makes a great graduation or going-away gift. Barnes & Noble is located at 4950 Pacific Avenue, in the Weberstown Mall in Stockton.