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The Real Shock
The Lost Bitcoin is an exciting middle-grade adventure about four friends who travel to London on a billion-dollar treasure hunt to recover a lost Bitcoin hard drive while uncovering a mystery that adults have failed to solve. What is the most rewarding aspect of writing a series?
The most rewarding thing is probably getting to imagine how these adventures would play out like a movie in my head. When I first heard about James Howells trying to gain access to a landfill in Wales to find a hard drive containing the key to hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin, I immediately thought, If my friends and I lived anywhere near there, we would figure out a way to find that thing!
That’s one of my favorite parts about writing a series. Whenever I hear about a real lost treasure or an unsolved mystery, I start imagining what would happen if my friends and I tried to find it. What would we need? Who else would be looking for it? What could go wrong?
How did you develop the personalities of the four friends and decide what each would contribute to the team?
You asked me this same question in the interview for my first book, and my answer is still the same. The four friends are really different parts of my own personality. I think everyone has different “voices” in their head depending on the situation, and I thought it would be fun to turn those into separate characters.
I’m writing the third book now, and one of the coolest parts of writing a series is seeing how their personalities have grown. Each character has become more complete and distinct, and sometimes I already know exactly what one of them would say or do before I even write the scene.
What research did you do to make the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency elements understandable to middle-grade readers?
First, I will say that there is nothing understandable about Bitcoin! I spent a lot of time researching cryptocurrency, private keys, digital wallets, and what happens if someone loses access to their Bitcoin.
The hardest part was figuring out how much readers actually needed to know. And that turned out to be pretty simple: there’s a hard drive, it contains keys to a fortune in Bitcoin, and no keys = no money.
The real shock was learning that Bitcoin is only valuable because a lot of people believe it’s valuable—kind of like cash—and that you basically own it because a huge network of computers agrees that you do. Once I understood that, I figured readers didn’t need a school lesson on Bitcoin. They just needed enough to understand the treasure hunt.
What do you hope young readers learn from the characters about ingenuity, responsibility, honesty, and teamwork?
I don’t really have a goal of teaching my audience anything. I just want them to be engaged, entertained, and to keep turning the page.
This question actually reminds me of a trip I took to a museum. The guide kept pointing out all the symbolism and hidden meanings in the paintings, and I remember wondering if the artists really intended all of that or if they were just painting something they liked.
I think about my books the same way. If adult readers see lessons about teamwork, honesty, or responsibility, that’s great. But when I’m writing, I’m mostly thinking, Is this story good enough to make someone put down their phone and keep reading?
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The Goonies meets Home Alone in a hilarious, high-stakes hunt for a billion-dollar fortune buried beneath a mountain of garbage.
Five years ago, a hard drive holding the keys to 15,000 Bitcoin was accidentally thrown away. Now, it’s lost somewhere inside a sprawling, heavily guarded garbage dump outside London.
Sam, Riley, Ava, and Jonah are going to find it.
Soon, the four friends are sneaking past security, deploying custom drones, dodging guard dogs, and racing an eccentric British politician who will stop at nothing to claim the fortune for his own royal ambitions.
They thought digging through trash was the hard part.
They were wrong.
When the treasure hunt follows them home, the kids have to turn their own turf into a fortress. Think glitter bombs. Paintballs. Homemade gadgets. And one very angry, humiliated would-be king.
Finding the treasure was only the beginning.
Now they have to keep it.
The hunt is back on. Are you ready to join them?
Legends Unearthed: The Lost Bitcoin
A billion-dollar treasure hunt starts with an ordinary piece of computer hardware in Sutton Lewis’s The Lost Bitcoin. This second installment follows Sam, Riley, Ava, and Jonah to London, where a family vacation provides cover for their search for a discarded hard drive containing access to a Bitcoin fortune. Its owner, Hannah Collins, has spent years trying to recover it, and the friends suspect that the official blocking her efforts has interests of his own. It’s an inviting setup for a middle-grade adventure novel: an enormous prize, a distinctly unglamorous hiding place, and four kids convinced they can solve a problem that’s defeated the adults. The story quickly makes room for both the mission and the cheerful disorder of traveling with three families.
The friends’ personalities give this children’s mystery much of its appeal. Sam brings research, careful observation, and a concern for fairness; Riley keeps things moving; Ava supplies engineering talent and confidence in nearly equal quantities. Jonah’s appetite, dramatic complaints, and questionable negotiating skills create a steady supply of trouble. Their conversations feel like an ongoing contest to see who can land the next joke, but there’s affection beneath the teasing. Sam’s frustration over extra treasure his friends secretly kept from their previous adventure gives their friendship a useful complication. Trust requires some repair, even among people who work well together. Ava’s landfill rover, Trash Panda, and her drone, Sky Fang, also develop surprisingly memorable personalities through the kids’ reactions to them. A solemn ceremony for a battered robot is one of the book’s funniest expressions of that attachment.
London gives the adventure plenty to work with. Westminster Abbey, the British Museum, the Tower of London, afternoon tea, and a visit to the Harry Potter studio tour become occasions for curiosity and comic mishaps. Sam’s interest in architecture and Ava’s fascination with security systems and special effects make those outings feel connected to who they are. Readers who enjoy STEM adventure stories will appreciate the emphasis on designing equipment, studying a search area, and preparing for setbacks. The explanations of Bitcoin keep the treasure’s significance accessible, while the gadgets invite readers to enjoy some generous imaginative license. Lewis favors short paragraphs, lively dialogue, and escalating slapstick. The recurring jokes about an outdated guidebook, missing luggage, and glitter establish a familiar rhythm, though some run longer than they need to. Replaying an extended confrontation through recorded footage also slows the story’s forward movement.
Reginald Pemberton-Smythe, the council official with extravagant royal ambitions, gives the book a wonderfully specific comic target. His fixation on ancestry, status, and the things a fortune could buy makes his increasingly ridiculous behavior easy to follow. That outsized greed gives the friends’ effort to help Hannah a clear purpose. The closing visit with her adds a quieter emotional note, allowing the reader to feel what recovering something lost can mean to its owner. Across the book, friendship, ingenuity, and responsibility emerge through choices and consequences, with room for the kids to be selfish, impulsive, and funny along the way. For readers drawn to humorous children’s fiction and treasure-hunt mysteries, The Lost Bitcoin offers an entertaining mix of inventive machinery, family antics, and a mission worth caring about.
Pages: 182 | ASIN : B0H58X2F4B
Fang, Bang and the Midnight Mouse: The Call From Buckingham Palace
Fang, Bang and the Midnight Mouse: The Call from Buckingham Palace is a funny and fast-moving picture book about two cat detectives who get called to Buckingham Palace to protect a giant wheel of cheddar at the King’s birthday ball. Of course, things do not stay calm for long. A sneaky mouse shows up, the cheese goes flying, and the whole story turns into a goofy royal chase before midnight. It is packed with humor, bright illustrations, and a playful mystery that feels perfect for a read-aloud.
I had a really good time with this picture book. It feels warm, silly, and full of life. Fang and Bang are easy to like right away, and I loved the addition of Tilly the guard dog because she gives the team a fresh spark. The writing keeps things moving. It has that nice storytime rhythm. I also really liked the interactive parts where you look for the Midnight Mouse in the scenes. That kind of thing makes a book fun to share, and it would have kept me hooked as a kid.
What stood out most to me was how the book mixes fun with heart. It’s not just chaos and cheese, even though that is a big part of the charm. There is teamwork, problem-solving, and a sweet sense of friendship running through it all. The illustrations are a huge part of the magic, too. They are colorful, lively, and full of little details that make each page feel busy in the best way. I also love the bonus bit about the history of cheddar cheese. That is such a wonderful extra. It made me smile because it feels unexpected and clever.
I would definitely recommend this children’s book to parents, grandparents, teachers, and anyone reading with kids around ages four to eight. It’s especially good for children who love animals, gentle mysteries, and stories that invite them to join in. I think it would shine at bedtime, during classroom read-alouds, or in family storytime. For me, it’s the kind of book that kids would ask for again, and the kind adults would not mind reading over and over.
Pages: 32 | ASIN : B0FQ63PCH3
Winston The Titan Terrier : Adventures In Ancient Egypt (Book 2)
Winston the Titan Terrier returns for another thrilling quest, this time alongside his loyal friends Diesel and Teddy. Their mission in Adventures in Ancient Egypt by award-winning authors Colin Peter Van Dongen and Mia Van Dongen leads them through a labyrinth of twisting tunnels, riddled with ingenious traps and mind-bending puzzles. Each solution propels them deeper into danger, and each wrong move threatens disaster. Along the way, formidable foes emerge, determined to halt their progress. At the heart of their journey lies a daunting challenge: stop Sad Face, a mischievous yet oddly endearing octopus, from rewriting Egyptian history, or risk arriving too late.
From the very first page, the story bursts with energy. The fast-paced narrative kept me eagerly turning pages, invested in whether Winston, Teddy, and Diesel could outwit the countless challenges placed before them. For children, the sheer variety of puzzles, traps, and encounters ensures that every reread reveals a new detail or hidden layer of fun.
The characters shine with personality. Winston, Diesel, and Teddy are more than companions; each stands out as a hero in their own right. Readers will find it difficult to choose a favorite among them. Meanwhile, the villains, Sad Face the alien octopus and Smokestrike the sly ninja cat, add both tension and comic mischief, often stealing scenes despite their role as obstacles.
Equally impressive are the illustrations by Colin Peter Van Dongen. Detailed, crisp, and vividly colored, the images elevate the storytelling. Their clarity, reminiscent of AI-rendered sharpness, invites readers to pause, explore, and savor every page.
Winston the Titan Terrier: Adventures in Ancient Egypt is a delightful read for all ages. It blends clever storytelling, dynamic characters, and striking illustrations into one unforgettable package. Highly recommended for children, and equally enjoyable for adults who love fast-paced adventures filled with heart and humor.
Pages: 48 | ISBN : 1738448746
Never Believe a Lie Twice
Kathleen Troy’s Never Believe A Lie Twice follows the rough-and-tumble journey of Sage Christopher, a sharp-witted thirteen-year-old suddenly orphaned and thrust from a seedy life in Las Vegas into a sleepy Connecticut town with relatives he’s never met. Sage’s dad, Marty, a grifter with a knack for making terrible choices, dies in a drunk driving accident, leaving behind a duffel bag full of mysterious clues tied to a decades-old disappearance. As Sage tries to dodge the foster system, he gets shipped off to Evansville where he finds new family, old secrets, and the creeping sense that someone dangerous may still be watching. What unfolds is part mystery, part coming-of-age, all heart.
I went into this book expecting a fairly straightforward YA mystery, but Troy surprised me. Her writing is snappy and clean, with a rhythm that grabs you right from the first jail cell scene. Sage’s voice is pitch-perfect, equal parts street-smart and vulnerable. There’s a thread of dry humor running through the entire book that kept me chuckling even when things got dark. The pacing never lagged, and the scenes often flipped with just the right mix of tension and heart. Troy doesn’t dumb things down for young readers either; she lets Sage wrestle with real danger, real grief, and real moral dilemmas. That kind of honesty, especially from a young protagonist, was refreshing.
What I loved most, though, was the way Troy builds her characters. Sage isn’t just another scrappy orphan hero; he’s damaged, sometimes too clever for his own good, and constantly teetering between trust and survival. The supporting cast, especially Pops and Gram, are warm without being sappy. I found myself rooting for Sage to get his happy ending, but I also wanted him to stay a little rogue-ish. There were a few plot turns that felt slightly convenient, but I forgave them because the heart of the story was so strong.
Never Believe A Lie Twice is the kind of book that sneaks up on you. It has guts, charm, and a whole lot of soul. I’d recommend it to readers twelve and up who love mysteries with a bit of grit and a lot of warmth. Fans of Louis Sachar or Kate DiCamillo will feel right at home here. And honestly, adults could do worse than spending an evening with Sage Christopher. I did, and I loved every minute of it.
Pages: 288 | ASIN : B09RQS93KQ
The Power of Imagination
Winston The Titan Terrier: The Cosmic Bone follows a clever superhero dog who loses his bone and goes on a quest to find it. What was the inspiration for your story?
We have an incredibly entertaining Boston Terrier named Winston. He absolutely loves snacks, especially a South African treat called biltong, or beef jerky as it’s known in America. He’s also a huge sports fan and can often be found chewing on basketballs and rugby balls, all while constantly nagging us to play with him. He absolutely loves to win! Mia has known him her entire life and absolutely adores him. So, when we collaborated on her own book concept at the age of five, she didn’t hesitate to turn him into Winston the Titan Terrier, a superdog with a unique backpack that can launch all sorts of awesome sporting equipment and gadgets.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
Some of the important ideas that we wanted to share in this book were:
- The Power of Friendship and Teamwork: The book highlights the importance of cooperation and support in overcoming challenges.
- Overcoming Adversity: It emphasizes the theme of resilience and perseverance in the face of difficulties.
- The Value of Curiosity and Learning: The story encourages exploration and a thirst for knowledge.
- Interactive Storytelling and Engagement: The book offers puzzles, mysteries, and interactive elements to keep readers engaged.
- Adventure and Exploration: It takes readers on journeys to new and exciting worlds.
- The Thrill of the Quest: The plot involves thrilling adventures, gadgets, and a formidable villain.
- The Imagination at Work: The book explores the power of imagination to see the world differently.
- Appeal to a Wide Audience: The story is designed to resonate with readers of all ages.
What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing?
My personal favourite, due to my love for big waves, is the scene where Smokestrike activates his Sea Sweeper device, which has the power to truly generate gigantic waves. Winston must quickly find a way to avoid being completely overwhelmed as one of these massive waves is barrelling towards him.
Some of Mia’s favourite scenes is when Teddy, the Australian Shepherd, leads Winston through secret entrances to his laboratory deep beneath the Bone Shop. There, Winston discovers a special cosmic bone that grants him incredible SuperDog abilities. As Winston demonstrates the bone’s powers, they stumble upon an ancient tunnel system that was built thousands of years earlier. Using the cosmic bone, Winston is able to translate the ancient text on the walls, revealing that they must complete five challenges to unlock a portal capable of transporting them anywhere in the universe. One of the most exciting interactive challenges on their journey is the Milky Way Gate. Here Teddy and Winston need to unlock a door by solving a code in front of them, using hints from various animal shapes illuminated by star systems.
Can you tell us what the second book will be about and when it will be available for fans to purchase?
We are excited to communicate that we have already storyboarded and mapped out Books 2 and 3 as part of the series over the last few weeks. The story is set to become even more exciting and intense as it unfolds, with the introduction of the ‘Time Twister’ device. Winston and the other characters will face off against old and new intergalactic villains across various time periods, as they journey through Mia’s favourite moments in history. We are aiming to launch Book 2 on World Book Day next year. In this instalment, Winston is transported back to Ancient Egypt in its original glory, where he must find a way back to his own timeline and save his world.
We plan to continue delivering all the adventure, mystery, secret tunnels, and interactive puzzles, ensuring readers of all ages remain captivated by what is going to happen next.
Author links: GoodReads | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Music Video | Book Trailer | Chat with Winston
Packed with vibrant illustrations that ignite imaginations, this action-packed story follows Winston’s journey through daring rescues, ingenious inventions, and surprising alliances. As he teams up with quirky characters, the adventure takes an unexpected turn, leading him to an ancient underground world filled with mysteries and challenges. Winston must race against time, using his transformative backpack and cunning wit to outsmart Smokestrike and prevent a catastrophe that threatens their planet. This is just the beginning of Winston’s adventures!
This exciting tale is a treasure trove for young readers (ages 5-12) seeking action and excitement, and adults looking for a heart-warming story filled with camaraderie. Perfectly blending illustrations and narrative, this book promises a visual feast, an enthralling journey, and interactive puzzles and riddles that seamlessly engage young minds.
Prepare for an extraordinary escapade with Winston, where every page brings vibrant illustrations, unexpected surprises, and a world brimming with wonder!
Purchase from:
Amazon USA http://tiny.cc/winstonamazonusa
Amazon UK http://tiny.cc/winstonamazon
Amazon Global Links http://tiny.cc/winstonamazonglobal
Barnes and Noble http://tiny.cc/winstonbn
Apple Books http://tiny.cc/winstonapple
Takealot http://tiny.cc/winstontakealot
Winston Titan Terrier : The Cosmic Bone (Adventure Book 1)
In Winston The Titan Terrier: The Cosmic Bone, authors Mia van Dongen and Colin van Dongen introduce readers to Winston, a clever Boston Terrier with a spy alias, Titan Terrier. Winston’s adventure begins when he loses his precious bone and embarks on a thrilling quest to recover it. Unknown to him, this is no ordinary lost item. Smokestrike, a ninja black cat, is behind the disappearance. Smokestrike wants to steal the secrets of Winston’s transformative backpack and sporting equipment. The result is an action-packed children’s book filled with clever twists and engaging challenges.
One aspect I loved about this picture book is Winston himself. He’s a charming character surrounded by a diverse group of dog friends, each with unique skills contributing to the story. This adds depth to the story and serves as an educational element that introduces young readers to various dog breeds and their characteristics. The authors enhance the reading experience by posing questions directly to the audience, encouraging them to spot hidden details or predict the next move in the mystery. This interactive approach keeps readers engaged and makes the story feel more dynamic.
The story is engaging and filled with unexpected details that take readers through various imaginative settings. The illustrations are another highlight. They are beautifully realistic and draw readers deeper into Winston’s adventurous world. The inclusion of photos of the real Winston at the beginning of the book is a delightful touch. It allows readers to connect even more with the character.
Winston The Titan Terrier: The Cosmic Bone is a fun, educational, and visually captivating picture book. The story’s interactive elements and vibrant artwork make it a worthwhile addition to any child’s bookshelf.
Pages: 32 | ASIN : B0CW1KLGM6
