Recent News

Recent Press
*Swim That Rock Finalist for the New England Book Award!
*Swim That Rock is the Rhode Island Book of 2014 for the National Book Festival

Recent News

- Very nice article in The Providence Journal
- Westerly Sun

School Visits

John and Jay just completed a two week book tour visiting over a dozen schools and bookstores. Here is a very nice article in Publishers Weekly about it.

Swim That Rock- School Visits from John Rocco on Vimeo.

Swim That Rock - In Stores April 2014

A young working-class teen fights to save his family’s diner after his father is lost in a fishing-boat accident. 

When his dad goes missing in a fishing-boat accident, fourteen-year-old Jake refuses to think he may have lost his father forever. But suddenly, nothing seems certain in Jake’s future, and now his family’s diner may be repossessed by loan sharks. In Narragansett Bay, scrabbling out a living as a quahogger isn’t easy, but with the help of some local clammers, Jake is determined to work hard and earn enough money to ensure his family’s security and save the diner in time. Told with cinematic suspense and a true compassion for the characters,Swim That Rock is a fast-paced coming-of-age story that beautifully and evocatively captures the essence of coastal Rhode Island life, the struggles of blue-collar family dynamics, and the dreams of one boy to come into his own.