The Incredible Adventures of Casper the Cat Who Got Lost in Africa: Book 5 – The Lions
This children’s book was a fun ride. Casper wakes up under a tree surrounded by a whole crowd of head-bobbing guinea fowl, then spends the rest of the story stumbling into new friends and new dangers as she keeps trying to get home. She helps orphaned squirrels. She faints in front of a lion. She ends up teaming up with lions, a giant spider named Bertrand, an antlion general with the longest name on Earth, and an army of scorpions to outsmart some trophy hunters. The ending is this wild mix of chaos, teamwork, and justice that somehow still feels warm and funny.
I really enjoyed how the writing balances humor with heavier stuff. One moment, I was laughing because Casper freaked out at an eight-eyed spider. The next moment, I felt a weird swell of pride as all these animals worked together to protect each other. The dialogue has this bouncy, chatty rhythm, and the author leans into absurd moments in a way that feels natural. I also liked that Casper never fully stops being scared. She is tiny. She is lost. She knows it. And she still tries to help anyway. I found that pretty sweet.
What surprised me was how much heart there is behind the silliness. The lions aren’t just big dramatic characters. They care deeply about their families, and that gives the story a real emotional center. Casper’s fear of crocodiles made me laugh and also made me feel protective of her. And the idea of every creature working together to chase off people who hurt animals for fun hit me harder than I expected. It was satisfying. And the tone never turns mean. It stays focused on bravery, kindness, and standing up for each other.
The illustrations throughout the book are adorable. They’re done in these soft, warm colors that make the whole world feel gentle even when the scenes get wild. The characters are expressive in that big clear way kids instantly understand. Each picture adds a little spark to the story, almost like a pause that lets you feel what the characters are feeling before diving back into the chaos.
I would absolutely recommend this children’s chapter book to kids who love funny adventure stories, talking animals, or anything with a lot of heart. It’s great for anyone who enjoys a quick, charming read that mixes giggles with good messages about empathy and courage. This book provides young readers with a good time.
Pages: 80 | ISBN: 1923356216
Love, Loyalty, and Moral Choice
The Accelerates: Forty Days to Dust follows a genetically engineered child and his teenage brother and protector, who struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic society that is in collapse. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Years ago, in a shopping mall, I watched a boy, perhaps seven years old, aggressively demanding something from his parents. When they refused, he lay down on the floor and began pounding it with his arms and legs. That image stayed with me and led me to wonder what the world would look like if children were born fully developed and, within forty days, began demanding from adults their jobs, homes, and everything earned over a lifetime. I noted the idea without knowing where it would lead.
My wife and I both grew up in households rooted in love and devotion to siblings, and we raised our two sons the same way. I have one brother, three years younger than me. Growing up in the former Soviet Union, the streets were tough, and we learned early to watch each other’s backs with loyalty and care. Now, in our seventh decade of life, that bond remains unchanged. I also witnessed the same devotion among my wife and her four siblings.
A few years ago, a tragedy struck our family when my wife’s oldest brother passed away in his mid-fifties. After his death, my thoughts returned to childhood, especially to memories of a young boy’s devotion to his baby brother during a serious illness. From there, imagination took over, and the emotional core of the story formed.
When I took early retirement, I finally had the time to do what I love most, telling stories on canvas, on paper, and through words.
That is why I dedicated this novel: For the ones we love, and for those in memory.
The supporting characters in this novel, I felt, were intriguing and well-developed. Who was your favorite character to write for?
All the characters are drawn from my family, so choosing a single favorite is difficult. Leo is inspired by my younger brother and by my brother-in-law, who passed away in his mid-fifties. Ethan reflects both my brother-in-law and myself. Clara is based on my wife’s older sister, as well as my wife. Mia is inspired by my niece.
Writing these characters felt less like invention and more like remembering. Each one carries a piece of someone I loved, which made them especially meaningful to bring to the page.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Many of my family members are doctors, including my wife, my older son, my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law, and her two sons, as well as many close friends. Because of this, I have spent years surrounded by conversations about moral and ethical questions in our society.
Those discussions shaped the heart of this novel. The most important themes I wanted to explore were morality and ethics, along with love, devotion, and family loyalty. In a collapsing world, I wanted to ask what values remain, and how human responsibility toward one another survives when structures and systems fall away.
What is one thing that you hope readers take away from The Accelerates: Forty Days to Dust?
I hope readers come away with a renewed sense of responsibility toward one another. In a world that often feels fractured and rushed, I wanted to remind readers that love, loyalty, and moral choice still matter, especially in times of collapse. If the book leaves them thinking about how we care for family, protect the vulnerable, and honor memory, then it has done its work.
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When Clara gives birth to Ava, a genetically altered child, the echoes of a failed experiment ripple across time.
Leo is one year old, trapped in a five-year-old’s body, carrying the mind of someone a century old. Fragile, brilliant, haunted, he bears the weight of humanity’s final gamble.
Beside him stands Ethan, his reluctant protector, and Mia, hardened by loss and fury. Together, they scavenge what’s left of a world that forgot how to breathe. But in the shadows, a presence waits. Ava, part girl, part code, all vengeance, hunts them from the fire they tried to escape
Time is unraveling. The infected dream in equations. And every breath could be their last.
The Accelerates: Forty Days to Dust is a poetic, post-apocalyptic reckoning: part genetic horror, part elegy, part love letter to the children grown too fast.
For readers who believe memory is a weapon worth wielding.
Magical Adventures
Mari-chan and Roboto Bunny follow a fearless six-year-old who, after her father goes missing in an avalanche, sets out on an adventure with her magical stuffed bunny to rescue her father. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
When my daughter was a baby, a friend gave her a white bunny stuffie with a blue tummy that lights up and plays music when you press it. The bunny was her favorite stuffie. I used to imagine them going on magical adventures together.
I rock climb as a hobby, not seriously like the dad in the book. But I thought, what if a rock climbing dad got trapped in an avalanche and it was up to his baby daughter and her stuffie to rescue him? I had to write the story to find out.
Mari-chan has to turn into a baby to get through the secret passage so she can find her father. This is a unique setup for a valuable lesson in bravery and perseverance. What were the morals you were trying to capture while creating your characters?
Six-year-olds tend to be very active. This is when a lot of kids start trying sports, like climbing, gymnastics, and swimming. Their confidence can become linked to that skill. But what if they can’t do gymnastics anymore? What if they lose the ability to do the thing they think makes them special? Would their confidence crumble? It’s important to realize that bravery isn’t just about physical ability. It’s a lesson that both the daughter and the dad have to learn.
What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?
The most important thing for me was to write a story that my daughter would want to read because I think reading is very important, especially for young children. My daughter complained that a lot of books I tried to get her to read were boring, so I made up my own story with things she likes: cute animals, adventure, songs, and riddles. By the way, parents who read this to their kids need to sing the songs.
Education wasn’t my primary goal with Mari-chan and Roboto Bunny, but to tell an interesting story, I had to introduce words and concepts, like avalanche and ferry, which are new to many six-year-olds. Whenever my daughter asked what something meant, I would explain and then move on with the story. This approach helped integrate the educational aspects into the story naturally.
I think it worked. I would read Mari-chan and Roboto Bunny to my daughter from my phone at bedtime, and she sometimes got so into the story that she took my phone and read it herself. She said it was the bestest story ever.
What is the next story that you’re writing, and when will it be published?
Mari-chan and Roboto Bunny was loosely based on Dante’s Inferno. I’m planning a sequel that will loosely follow Purgatorio (the next book in Dante’s The Divine Comedy), which I plan to publish before Christmas. I’d like to do a full trilogy, but I’ll see how it goes.
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On their journey, baby Mari-chan and Roboto Bunny must outwit hungry animals, alligator bridges, three-headed “beasts,” silly thieves, grumpy talking trees, a Bunny Kingdom gate test, and a wise owl tribunal. Along the way, Mari-chan discovers that even in a tiny body, her courage, creativity, and kindness are bigger than she ever imagined. But will her bravery and wits help rescue her dad, before it’s too late? It’s up to Mari-chan and Roboto Bunny to find out.
This heartwarming and imaginative allegory, reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno, shares that a difficult journey often has the best destination.
Gifts and Talents
Cutler’s Wonderful Creations follows a spoon, fork, and knife who are gifted to a young girl and struggle with understanding their purpose while waiting to be useful. I think this original idea is intriguing. How did you come up with this idea and develop it into a story?
I’ve actually been sharing this story with my kids for years lol! It was a simple way for me to get them to appreciate that they were intentionally designed with a special purpose and identity from God. I shared this story with a college friend a couple of years ago, and he suggested that I turn it into a children’s book. I never expected it to be so impactful, but it has been.
What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?
First, it is my belief that we all have a God-given purpose that ultimately leads to our greatest source of joy and fulfillment. No one understands the purpose of the creation quite like the Creator. Just as Mr. Cutler was uniquely qualified to share the ultimate purpose of the utensils, our Heavenly Father is uniquely qualified to help us unravel our purpose as well, since he is our Creator. Secondly, none of us is “broken.” Finding out what you aren’t created for is almost as important as finding out what you were created for. Lastly is to celebrate the gifts and talents of others while recognizing the value that you have as well. Comparison is a very real struggle that many children (and adults) face in our society today. My hope is that they (as well as their parents) gain their identity from the one who designed it in the first place, to know that they are enough as they are.
What experience in your life has had the most significant impact on your writing?
It honestly stems from a desire to pass down my lessons learned to my kids and grandkids so that they can avoid some of my miscues from a poor self-identity. The earlier that they can realize and walk into their God-given identity, the sooner they will approach life with intention in all that they do. I know how frustrating it can be to feel as if you were meant for more while seemingly wandering about life searching for it. If I can help an adult or child recognize their value through connecting with their Creator sooner rather than later, then mission accomplished.
What story are you currently in the middle of writing?
I actually have two other books ready for publishing now lol! Both are children’s books. One is regarding service, and the other is about growth and the importance of good environments to grow in. All of my stories come from things that I experienced, so I have plenty of material!
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Everyone Deserves a Home
Baer Charlton’s historical fiction novel, Everyone Deserves a Home, traces the intertwined lives of Walter Humphrey, Leatha, Betsy Turner, and eventually Hannah Mariah Rose Humphrey. It begins in the American South of the mid-1800s, moves through New Orleans, crosses the ocean to England, and follows a family shaped by secrets of race, identity, and survival. From the first chapters, the story lays out a complicated inheritance: hidden parentage, passing as white, the legacy of enslavement, and the formation of a chosen family built not by blood but by loyalty. Even early on, you see how Hannah’s future as a surgeon grows out of this unconventional household where medicine, language, theater, and resilience are all part of daily life.
The writing moves with an intimate, memoir-like rhythm, especially in the prologue, where adult children recount their mother’s hidden Black heritage and how she “became white” at five years old. That moment alone sets the tone. It’s direct, a little painful, and strangely gentle. Scenes stretch out with detail you can almost smell or touch. Then, suddenly, a sentence snaps short and lands like a stone in the gut. I liked that mix. It mirrors the characters themselves. Walter’s voice, in particular, blends clinical precision with emotional restraint. Meanwhile, Leatha’s chapters feel grounded and visceral, as if she’s speaking while chopping vegetables or tying on an apron. And Betsy’s early chapters shimmer with that mix of bravado and fragility found in a teenager who has survived too much too young.
What surprised me most was how the novel lets relationships carry the ideas. Topics like passing, racial identity, gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy are present, but they arrive wrapped inside the everyday details of meals, births, surgeries, and whispered conversations over kitchen tables. The story never lectures. It just unfolds. Sometimes I found myself pausing, not because something dramatic had happened, but because a small detail shifted my understanding of a character. A hand on a shoulder. A joke in sign language. A quiet refusal to leave someone behind. These moments gave the book a warm undercurrent even when the history it leans on is harsh. And although the novel spans continents and decades, its emotional center always comes back to the home this unconventional family creates together.
By the end, I felt like the title wasn’t just a claim but a philosophy that the book keeps proving. The story champions people who carve out belonging in a world determined to deny it to them. It’s historical fiction, yes, but it reads with the intimacy of family lore and the clarity of someone finally ready to tell the whole truth. I would recommend Everyone Deserves a Home to readers who enjoy character-driven historical fiction, stories about identity and chosen family, and novels that blend emotional honesty with rich, lived-in detail.
Pages: 263 | ASIN : B0FL13PG6X
I And the Village: Daughter of the Kibbutz
I and the Village: Daughter of the Kibbutz traces Estee Cohen Laub’s life from her early childhood in Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk to her family’s tangled past in Europe, shaped by war, migration, and loss. The memoir blends daily kibbutz life with the weight of inherited trauma. It moves between her own coming of age and the stories of her parents and grandparents who survived upheaval, exile, and the Holocaust. Laub paints a vivid picture of communal childhood, the rules that shaped it, and the emotional undercurrents that ran beneath a system built on ideals of equality and collective identity.
Laub’s writing is simple on the surface, yet it carries flashes of raw honesty that hit without warning. I found myself smiling at the small scenes of childhood, the games, the kids’ arguments, the curiosity, all of it wrapped in that strange mix of innocence and structure. Other times, the mood dropped fast as the family history unfurled. I kept thinking about how she held those two worlds together, the bright kibbutz sun and the long shadow of Europe, and how much strength it must have taken to look back without flinching. Her voice feels steady, even when the memories shake.
What stayed with me most was Laub’s openness. She lets the reader sit with her confusion, her longing for affection, her complicated relationship with her parents, and her deep pull toward dance. The prose wanders at times, but I didn’t mind. It felt true to the way memory behaves. Some scenes are so detailed that I saw them as clearly as if I were standing there, and other parts drift past like half-remembered dreams. I appreciated that looseness. It gave the story a human rhythm. I felt a quiet ache through much of the book, mostly because Laub writes about loss not with drama, but with this soft and steady truthfulness that lingers.
I And the Village is a good fit for anyone who loves personal histories, stories of survival, and reflections on what it means to grow up inside a system bigger than yourself. Laub’s memoir will also appeal to readers drawn to cultural history, communal living, or family stories shaped by war. I closed the book feeling moved and grateful for the glimpse into a life both ordinary and extraordinary in its own way.
Pages: 224 | ISBN : 978-1837944620
Mortal Vengeance
Mortal Vengeance, by Alejandro Torres De la Rocha, is a young adult supernatural thriller that follows a tight-knit but deeply troubled group of teens whose attempt to get revenge on a cruel teacher spirals into something far darker than any of them imagined. What starts as a grim school drama quickly escalates into a chain of betrayals, fear, and ultimately the appearance of a mythic, reaper-like being that shatters their lives. The book blends coming-of-age turmoil with horror and psychological suspense, and the shift from everyday cruelty to supernatural violence comes through sharp and sudden.
I was pulled into the heat and pressure of those classrooms and courtyards. The writing often leans intense, almost cinematic, with scenes described in a way that makes the emotions feel oversized, raw, and volatile. I caught myself thinking, these kids are carrying way more weight than they know how to hold. Marcos’s explosive anger, Mario’s guilt and fragility, Alex’s manipulative charm and insecurities, Melissa’s heartbreak, Enrique’s need to please everyone… every character is drawn with a kind of heightened emotional color. Sometimes it felt melodramatic, but in a way that matched the story’s pulse. The author’s choice to push sensations and metaphors to their limits gives the book a feverish energy, like the world is always one bad decision away from breaking.
What surprised me most was how quickly the story shifts from grounded teen conflict to something mythic and terrifying. One moment we’re dealing with bullying and revenge in a school hallway, and the next we’re staring down the Grim Cojuelo on a moonlit pier. That jump could have felt jarring, but for me, it worked because the emotional stakes were already running so high. The supernatural element feels like an extension of everything boiling inside these characters. Still, I found myself wishing for a few quieter beats where the emotions had room to breathe. When everything is dialed up, it can be hard to sit with the subtler moments. But there’s something gripping about how unafraid the author is to dive into intensity, whether it’s love, jealousy, fear, or guilt.
Mortal Vengeance is a story about how small cruelties grow into big consequences, and how revenge rarely lands where you expect. If you like young adult stories that mix school drama with supernatural horror, and you don’t mind a narrative that swings for big emotions instead of quiet restraint, this will be the perfect book for you. It’s a dramatic, dark, and sometimes chaotic ride, but it is delightfully entertaining.
Pages: 306 | ASIN : B0FDT6JYSQ
Navigating New Ideas
Surprising Max follows a soccer-loving boy who reluctantly practices piano and discovers, alongside a blooming amaryllis, that patience and care can unlock unexpected confidence and talent. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
A retired music professor and piano teacher, I made up Max’s story for Sunday School children, as an introduction to Advent, a season of waiting and preparation that precedes Christmas. A piano teacher enjoys a unique influence in a child’s education, guiding year-by-year growth. And, since music is a performance art, the recitals become the show and tell for performers and parents. Max GETS surprised, at his performance, at the appearance of the high school soccer star, who dazzles at the piano, and by the beauty of the red amaryllis. But, even more than that, Max IS the surprise. He has amazed the audience, his mom, and, of course, himself.
How did you approach writing a story about perseverance without making it feel instructional for young readers?
Max’s thoughts are expressed through his “italicized” questions. We are privy only to what he’s feeling: self pity, bewilderment, amazement, worry, and finally, a proclamation. For most children, navigating new ideas requires an emotional safety net that permits questions that may not have answers.
What role did the illustrations play in shaping Max’s emotional journey as you envisioned it?
Our sons’ favorite book was the great Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. While my illustrator couldn’t copy that little boy, she came very close to capturing that disheveled awkwardness. Max’s smiles bookend his experiences; he was happy playing soccer AND, eventually, playing the piano.
What do you hope children feel or reflect on after finishing Surprising Max?
A friend told me that, after receiving Surprising Max for Christmas, her grandchildren decided to take piano lessons. Obviously, that was a wonderful reflection on Max! Not every child will become a musician. However, the pursuit of music making is filled with life-enriching and life-enduring lessons. My hope would be that every child feels welcomed in that world.
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