Blog Archives
So You Want To Be A Spy (Intelligence Agent)
As a parent, I really appreciate what So You Want To Be A Spy does for kids who are fascinated by spies. Instead of leaning into the movie version with car chases, exploding gadgets, and impossible escapes, this book gives young readers a much more realistic look at intelligence work. It explains that being a spy is less about looking cool and more about paying attention, thinking clearly, learning languages, reading people, and knowing how to separate facts from guesses.
What stood out to me most is how practical and down-to-earth the book feels. Soules explains the different kinds of work that happen inside an intelligence agency, from field agents and analysts to technical specialists and people who create cover identities. I liked that it shows kids a typical workday and makes it clear that a lot of spy work happens in offices, through research, teamwork, paperwork, and careful decision-making. That honesty makes the exciting parts feel more meaningful.
The book is short, but it’s packed with useful information. Did you know that Harriet Tubman was one of the most effective spies in American history? I didn’t, but that’s just one of the amazing things I learned from this book. There are exercises kids can try, profiles of real spies from history, and suggestions for what young readers can do now if they’re interested in this kind of career. I also liked that it doesn’t sugarcoat the harder parts of the job, like long hours, pressure, secrecy, and doing important work that may never be publicly recognized. That’s a valuable lesson, especially for kids growing up in a world where everything seems to get posted and praised instantly.
I’d recommend this book for curious readers around age ten and up, especially kids who love puzzles, maps, mysteries, codes, and noticing details other people miss. The writing is clear and engaging, though some of the vocabulary may be better suited for strong readers or young teens. Overall, So You Want To Be A Spy is a smart, fun, and honest introduction to espionage, and I can definitely see it being a great fit for a classroom or school library.
Pages: 38 | ASIN : B0GX2XWBP6
Andy the Admiral and the USS Shipshape
Andy the Admiral and the USS Shipshape by Mark Fava gives young readers a friendly introduction to Navy life through a story that is both educational and easy to follow. Set aboard the USS Shipshape, the book follows Andy as he shows his crew what it takes to keep a ship organized, safe, and ready for the day. Readers see sailors arriving on time, cleaning, helping one another, and making honest choices, all while learning that good character is just as important as doing a job well.
One of the strongest parts of the book is how naturally it connects everyday values to life aboard a ship. The lessons about responsibility, respect, teamwork, and honesty never feel too heavy-handed. Instead, they are shown through the crew’s actions, which makes the message clear for children without slowing down the story. Andy is a likable guide, and his leadership style gives readers a positive example of how to encourage others and work together.
The illustrations add a lot of charm to the book. They are colorful, detailed, and give children plenty to notice on each page. Parents and teachers could easily use the pictures to start conversations about manners, cooperation, military service, and what different sailors might do aboard a ship. I also enjoyed the inclusion of the NATO phonetic alphabet, which gives the story an extra educational touch and may spark curiosity in readers who enjoy learning new facts.
Andy the Admiral and the USS Shipshape is a great choice for children who enjoy ships, military stories, or books with clear character-building themes. It is especially meaningful for Navy families, but its lessons are useful for any young reader. Mark Fava delivers a thoughtful and enjoyable book that combines adventure, learning, and positive values in a way children can understand.
Pages: 37 | ASIN : B0GX7ZT9R3
Unconditional Love
In Oy Vey, It’s Always Something, you share your family’s journey from your escape from brutality in 1904 Kiev to decades of endurance and memories made in America. Why was this an important book for you to write?
One day, my grandchildren were visiting. There were so many stories. Always bouncing between so many memories. “What, we’ve never heard that one before!” “You should write a book about all of this.” I sat for a moment to start reflecting on my life and said, “Who am I going to tell, what would I say, and who would read it?” The stream of questions and suggestions led me to realize that I was fortunate to have had such a good life up to this point and that my grandkids wanted to know everything. I knew that the only way I could tell them all of it was to write, so I agreed, and I did.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
The hardest thing to write about was my husband’s affair with his secretary. It was one thing to pour my heart out about the betrayal, hurt, and isolation; it was another to prove to my grandkids that I truly forgave Irv and how I did it.
Did you learn anything about yourself as you wrote this memoir?
Yes. By the time I finished The Affair, I was proud to realize how strong I was when I came out of the other end of the whole ordeal. That whole thing could have left me so bitter. G-d gave me the strength, courage, and wisdom to remember that His plan was for me to be the better half of “The Romance of the Century.” Even after Irv died of cancer in 1989, I still got to enjoy all the things we created, built, and did together. I learned that even though I had the rest of my life to count my blessings, I would never have enough time to do so.
What advice would you give someone who is considering sharing their family’s story with readers?
Well, while writing this book for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren drove me, I realized that I had to write it for myself too – my complete investment in the book must equal my unconditional love for the kids. That was the only way I knew how to relive my life with words. They had to know that my unconditional love would continue growing for them after I was gone
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Website
In Oy Vey: It’s Always Something, Jean looks back on the delicious absurdities of family, faith, and everyday chaos with the sharp humor of a born storyteller and the heart of someone who’s lived it all. From kitchen mishaps to life’s bigger messes, her stories remind us that joy and heartbreak often share the same recipe — just add a little perspective, a pinch of patience, and a healthy dose of humor.
Told with honesty, warmth, and a wink, this memoir is a celebration of imperfection — proof that no matter what life serves up, it’s always something worth laughing about.
The Largest Unsolved Problem
So You Want To Be A Marine Biologist doesn’t just open the door to the ocean; it shows what it takes to step through it and trades fantasy for something more powerful: the slow, patient thrill of discovery in a world that is still, largely, unknown. What was the inspiration for your story?
The ocean is the largest unsolved problem on the planet, and we have barely begun to look at it. That is what I kept coming back to as I wrote. We have mapped the surface of Mars more completely than we have mapped the floor of our own seas. New species are still being discovered every year. Entire ecosystems function in ways we are only beginning to understand. For a kid who feels pulled toward mysteries, that should be electrifying. The book came from wanting to show that pull — not as an abstraction, but as the daily work of the people who study the ocean. There are kids out there who already feel the ocean’s tug, and I wanted to show the potential of following that feeling somewhere real.
You include details like cold water, seasickness, and failed research. Do you think showing the hard parts makes the career more or less appealing to kids?
More appealing, by a wide margin. The careers that get romanticized into fantasy in children’s books often feel hollow when readers encounter the reality later — sometimes too late, after they have already shaped expectations around the fantasy. When you tell a kid that a marine biologist spends real days cold and miserable on a research vessel and still loves the work, you give them something to recognize themselves in. The hard parts are not a deterrent. They are the proof that the work is real. A career that is challenging in specific, articulable ways is a career a thoughtful kid can imagine choosing. A career that sounds like a vacation is one nobody actually grows into.
The book touches on issues like coral bleaching and environmental change. How important was it to include the conservation side of marine biology?
Essential, because conservation is not a side topic in modern marine biology; it is the field. The ocean is changing faster than we can study it. Coral reefs are dying. Fish populations are collapsing. Acidification is altering ecosystems we do not yet understand. To write a book about marine biology in 2026 and leave conservation out would be to write a fairy tale. Marine biologists today are simultaneously trying to learn what the ocean is and trying to keep what they are studying from disappearing. That dual role — scientist and witness — is part of what defines the profession now. Kids deserve to know that going in.
What do you hope young readers take away about protecting the ocean?
That it matters, and that they matter to the work. Kids sometimes hear about environmental challenges in ways that produce despair rather than action. I wrote the book with the opposite intent. The ocean’s challenges are real, and the people working on them include scientists, conservationists, fishermen, policy advocates, photographers, educators, and citizens who simply pay attention. There is a place for almost any interest a kid has in the work of caring for the ocean. What I hope readers take away is that protecting the ocean is not someone else’s job. It is everyone’s, and the door to that work is wider and more welcoming than it may appear at first glance.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website
So You Want To Be A Marine Biologist is an illustrated nonfiction guide for young readers ages 10 to 14 who are ready to learn what this career actually looks like — not the glossy documentary version, but the real thing. The years of science classes before the first research dive. The patience required to observe animals in an environment that was never built for human bodies. The teamwork between marine biologists, data analysts, divers, and conservationists working to understand a world that covers more of this planet than all its land combined.
Each chapter brings kids deeper into the daily reality of marine biology — from mapping coral reefs and monitoring ocean ecosystems to cataloging sea creatures and studying the connections between species that scientists are still working to understand. Young readers will discover how marine biologists conduct laboratory research and open-water fieldwork, what it means to live and work aboard a research vessel for weeks at a time, and why precise, patient observation matters more than any piece of equipment.
But this book goes beyond the adventure of exploration. It tackles the urgent science of ocean conservation — why coral reefs are disappearing, how pollution threatens sea life, and what marine scientists are doing right now to protect the ecosystems our planet depends on. It also addresses the physical demands and intellectual rigor the profession requires, honestly and without talking down to its audience. Kids who are curious about biology and drawn to the ocean deserve real answers about what this path takes, and this guide gives them exactly that.
Along the way, young readers will learn what they can do right now to explore marine science — the habits, the curiosity, the action steps that help a kid who loves the ocean figure out if this calling is truly theirs. Because the best time to start thinking like a marine biologist is long before you ever set foot in a lab or pull on a wetsuit.
The ocean still holds more questions than answers. And somewhere out there is a young scientist who will spend a lifetime chasing what we don’t yet know. This book is where that journey begins.
Ages 10-14. Illustrated nonfiction. Careers, science, and the sea.
The Bone Tells Its Story
So You Want To Be A Dinosaur Hunter trades the Hollywood version of discovery for something far more powerful: the quiet thrill of earning knowledge. Do you remember the moment when dinosaurs shifted from fascination to science for you?
I think it happened gradually rather than in a single moment. Like a lot of kids, I grew up with dinosaurs as the magnificent monsters of imagination — the T. rex with the world’s loudest roar, the brontosaurus with its ridiculous neck, the velociraptor as a movie villain. The shift from fascination to science came when I started paying attention to the work that produced what we know. The realization that someone, somewhere, had spent years on their knees in the heat with a brush finer than a paintbrush, just to free a bone that had been buried for sixty-five million years — that landed differently than the dinosaurs themselves. The dinosaurs are the headline. The work is the actual story. Once I started seeing it that way, the science became just as compelling as the creatures. Maybe even more so.
Many kids imagine fossil hunting as fast-paced and exciting. What’s the biggest misconception about paleontology you hope this book corrects?
The misconception I most wanted to correct is the one I think Hollywood reinforces: that paleontology is fast. It is not. A bone that takes thirty seconds to find on screen takes weeks to actually free from the rock, months more to clean and analyze in the lab, and sometimes years before the scientific interpretation is settled. The work is patient in a way that few professions are. And that patience is the science. The slowness is what makes the knowledge reliable. I wanted kids who are drawn to dinosaurs to see that the patience is not the boring part of the work. It is what makes the discoveries real.
Was there a particular step—fieldwork, excavation, or lab analysis—you found most fascinating to explain?
Definitely the lab analysis. Fieldwork has the romance, and excavation has the visible drama, but the lab is where the work actually becomes science. That is where a fossil stops being a thing you found and becomes evidence that something existed. The CT scanning of fossil interiors, the comparative anatomy across species, the chemical analysis of preserved tissue — these are the moments when the bone in front of you starts telling you a story that no one has ever heard before. I find that genuinely thrilling, and I wanted kids to see it. Many books focus on the dig site because that is what is photogenic. The lab is less photogenic, but arguably more astonishing.
How did you balance detailed scientific information with accessibility for younger readers?
The honest answer is that I trust kids more than the publishing industry sometimes does. Kids in the 10-14 age range can handle real content if the writing respects them. They do not need me to dilute the science; they need me to explain it well. So my approach is to use real terminology — sedimentary layers, stratigraphy, bone density analysis — and then make sure the surrounding context lets the reader understand what the term actually means in practice. I write the book imagining that the reader is curious, capable, and possibly already knows more than I do about specific dinosaurs. The book meets them where they are rather than where I assume they might be. In my experience, kids rise to that level of trust every time.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website
So You Want To Be A Dinosaur Hunter brings kids ages 10 to 14 face to face with the real world of paleontology. No shortcuts, no movie magic — just the fascinating, grueling, deeply rewarding science of uncovering prehistoric life. Young readers will learn how paleontologists read geological layers the way most people read books, how they use painstaking excavation techniques to free fossils from stone, and why a single bone fragment can rewrite everything we thought we knew about dinosaurs.
The facts inside are specific and surprising. Readers will discover how fossils actually form, what ancient teeth and tracks reveal about creatures like T. rex and Triceratops, and how laboratory analysis transforms a chunk of rock into a scientific breakthrough. They will explore the history of legendary fossil discoveries that changed our understanding of prehistoric creatures — and learn why the dig that yields nothing can matter just as much as the one that changes everything.
But this is more than a dinosaur encyclopedia or a collection of amazing species profiles. It is an illustrated guide to a real career, written with honesty and depth. Young readers will find out what physical endurance the fieldwork demands, what intellectual rigor the science requires, and what drives paleontologists to call themselves the luckiest scientists alive. They will also discover what kids can do right now — the skills to build, the questions to ask, the places to explore — to find out if this profession might be their future.
Every page respects the intelligence and curiosity of its readers. This book does not simplify the science into something unrecognizable. It does not gloss over the hard parts. It brings young people all the way inside the work, because the child who dreams of hunting dinosaurs deserves to know what that dream actually looks like when it becomes a life. For the kid who has always been drawn to something ancient and vast.
For the one who picks up every rock and wonders what might be hidden inside. The fossil has been there for sixty-five million years — waiting for someone exactly like you to find it.
Ages 10 to 14. Illustrated nonfiction. Science careers, fossils, and the prehistoric world.
A Planetary Immune Response
The Cycle of the Serpent follows a cursed mark across eight eras of human collapse, as each civilization’s greed, violence, and complacency awakens a monstrous force that asks whether judgment can save humanity or doom it. What drew you to the idea of linking historical collapses through a recurring supernatural “correction”?
My background is in systems engineering and biological sciences, so I tend to view history not as a linear progression of dates, but as a complex system of feedback loops. In biology, when a system becomes unstable or toxic, an immune response is triggered to preserve the whole. I wanted to apply that ‘systems thinking’ to human civilization. What if our recurring collapses aren’t just bad luck or political failure, but a planetary immune response? Linking these eras through the ‘Entity’ allowed me to explore the terrifying idea that humanity isn’t the master of the world, but a component that is subject to reset whenever our collective greed threatens the planetary baseline.
How did you choose the eight eras featured in the anthology, and were there any collapses you considered but left out?
I chose the eras based on the ‘Peak and Precipice’ rule. I wanted moments where a society felt it was at its absolute zenith, whether that was the survivalist triumph of an Ice Age tribe, the decadent peak of the Roman era, or the high-tech hubris of 2026. Each era represents a specific flavor of human failure: complacency, greed, or the blind pursuit of power. I did consider including the fall of the Khmer Empire at Angkor, as their water management systems are a fascination for an engineer like me, but I ultimately left it out to ensure the narrative felt geographically global and spanned a full 12,000-year arc without becoming repetitive.
How did you balance the moral clarity of the premise with the ambiguity of whether the corrective force is justified?
This was the most challenging part of the ‘Hard Science’ edge of the book. To the ‘vessels’, the individuals caught in the reset, the Entity is an unspeakable monster. It is violent, final, and seemingly cruel. However, from a systems and biological perspective, a forest fire is a catastrophe for the individual tree but a necessity for the health and future of the forest. I wanted readers to wrestle with that discomfort: Can you call a force ‘evil’ if it is the only thing preventing a species from completely destroying its own habitat? The ‘moral clarity’ comes from the recognition of our own flaws; the ‘ambiguity’ lies in whether we believe we deserve the survival we’ve been given.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
I am currently finalizing a project that feels like the natural, much darker, evolution of the themes explored in The Cycle of the Serpent. It is a work of autofictional cosmic horror, a narrative that bridges the gap between the grounded, high-stakes reality of the industrial engineering world and the existential dread of ancient, unknowable forces.
While The Cycle examined the macro-system of historical resets, this new work turns the lens inward. It’s an intimate, visceral look at what happens when a person who understands how the world is built begins to see the cracks in the reality behind it. I am still wrestling with the final title. While The Shadow of the Dragon has served as the working name, the story is demanding something that better captures its specific brand of suffocating intimacy. I am aiming for a Fall release in October 2026, a timeframe that feels appropriate for a story meant to be read as the days grow shorter.
Closing thought/statement:
I write for the reader who suspects that history is a series of resets, existence is a reincarnation trap, and that true freedom only begins when we stop being components of the system and find the hand on the control wheel.
Author Links: GoodReads | Instagram | Amazon
From the frozen steppes of 10,000 BCE to the glass towers of 2026, humanity has always faced the same test: When the resources run low, do we share, or do we hoard?
And eight times, we have failed.
In The Cycle of the Serpent, V.W. Black weaves a terrifying and beautiful tapestry of human history, revealing the secret mechanism that governs our rise and fall. In every age, when greed and cruelty reach a breaking point, an Entity awakes. It is not a god. It is not a demon. It is the immune system of the planet.
It chooses a vessel—a shaman in the Ice Age, a slave in Pompeii, a soldier in Stalingrad, a CEO in the future —and marks them with a scar in the shape of an Infinity Loop.
Through their eyes, we witness the moments when civilization breaks:
The Great Sleep: A shaman freezes the world to stop a tribe from eating its future.
The Obsidian Heart: A slave girl in Pompeii triggers Vesuvius to end the gluttony of the Empire.
The Plague Bearer: A peasant in Feudal France becomes the vector of the Black Death to balance the ledger of the rich.
The Legion Protocol: A tech CEO in 2026 uploads her rage to the cloud to break the digital wheel.
Spanning 12,000 years, this anthology is a dark, gripping exploration of the thin line between survival and extinction.
The library is closed.
The Cycle is ending.
Are you the Ninth Vessel?
In The Mountain
In the Mountain by Dottie Lee is a disaster-survival novel about a group of workers trapped inside a secretive mountain facility after tremors turn their workplace into a tomb of broken glass, dust, fire, and darkness. Paul, Trace, Pearl, April, Jason, Joseph, Frankie, and others must become a makeshift family as they search for water, food, light, courage, and eventually a way back to the world. What begins as workplace chatter and suspicion becomes a long ordeal of planning, praying, grieving, improvising, and refusing to be swallowed by the mountain.
I was most drawn to the book’s insistence that survival is not one grand heroic act but a hundred small, unglamorous decisions: sharing water, marking rocks, making lists, choosing who walks first, talking someone through panic. The novel has a practical, almost tactile imagination. It cares about bags, bottles, ladders, coats, fire, pain, cold, and the blunt arithmetic of supplies. That concreteness gives the story its grit; the mountain never feels symbolic only, it feels heavy, mineral, indifferent.
The emotional center, for me, is the group’s transformation from coworkers and near-strangers into what the book later calls a “Dislocated Family.” Some dialogue is emphatic, and the pacing sometimes lingers over logistics, but that same persistence creates a steady drumbeat of endurance. I admired how the book allows fear, faith, irritation, humor, and tenderness to coexist. Nobody becomes polished by catastrophe; they become more visibly themselves, which is better.
The target audience is readers who enjoy survival fiction, disaster fiction, adventure, found-family stories, and suspense. Readers who liked the problem-solving stamina of Andy Weir’s The Martian may appreciate this book’s focus on ingenuity under pressure, though Lee’s novel is warmer, more communal, and less sleekly scientific. A mountain collapses in this book, but what remains standing is the stubborn architecture of human care.
Pages: 225 | ASIN : B0GTBZTKFS
