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Muppit Boy and the Wheel of Power sends newly superpowered Condor Kid on a mission to find a group of missing boys and uncover what’s really happening inside the mysterious Pleasure Island. What inspired you to transform Mo from Muppit Boy into the superhero Condor Kid?
I liked the added challenge to Mo’s already complicated life by having Dr. Drug experiment on him and give him super strength. Coupled with his poor self-image and now inability to grow beyond age twelve, I’m challenging the character to rise above himself to help others in need. I also like exploring the challenges of being a real-life superhero in a world that only knows fictional ones.
Mo has extraordinary abilities but remains insecure about very ordinary things. Why was that contrast important?
Mo is thirteen, but stuck growth-wise at twelve. This is a very awkward age for most kids, my own son included. Given Mo’s difficult relationship with the Muppit Boy persona created by his mom’s YouTube channel and the endless nose jokes he’s had to endure, he must force himself to see his own greatness that lies within, which can be tough for kids his age who more than anything just want to fit in.
What inspired the idea of building the central mystery around energetic boys who have struggled at school or at home, and what do you hope young readers who have sometimes felt “too much” recognize in these characters?
I’ve been a teacher and worked with middle/high school kids most of my life, and found myself constantly going to bat for boys who “had too much energy in the classroom” and were constantly in trouble for their natural nature. As a male teacher, I accepted these boys without question because I know how typical such energy and competitiveness can be in boys, but the vast majority of teachers are female and many have never raised boys at home. Boys and girls learn differently and it’s the job of each teacher to adjust their teaching styles to accommodate every student. Sadly, most don’t do this, so the energetic/competitive boy is punished or told he needs medication by a one-size-fits-all system that doesn’t want to adapt. I know there are many boys out there who have experienced this prejudice and I hope they are given access to this book.
Where would you like to take Muppit Boy and Condor Kid in future adventures?
The next few books in the series are already written and each one involves some element of science or technology that is rushed into production or misused in some fashion. I want readers to understand that just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be. But the heart of all these books is the relationship between the characters, old and new.
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Elmo Fitzroy—known worldwide as Muppit Boy—adopts a new alter ego in this latest adventure – Condor Kid! Having been altered through the infusion of revolutionary nanite technology, Mo has become the world’s first superhero. That is, if he can learn to fly without faceplanting every time.
Hiding his superpowers from best friends Barney and Kashvi is not as easy as it looks in comic books, especially with someone as sharp as Kash. She doesn’t miss a trick, so after Condor Kid pulls off a dramatic rescue at a local carnival, Kash is hot on the trail of this new masked hero, determined to uncover his identity.
In the meantime, athletic, overly energetic boys labeled ADHD by their schools are vanishing as part of a devious plot to make use of their competitive spirit. Oscar Silverman—Mo’s boss—assigns the case to Mo and his Big Brother mentor/spying partner, Ari. What the crime-fighting duo really needs is a hyper, athletic boy to go undercover, but, unfortunately, everyone knows Muppit Boy is a nerd, not an athlete.
Can Mo save the lives of a hundred kidnapped youth from a scientist who’s exploiting them in the craziest scheme ever, or will he need the help of the last person on earth he’d ever expect to work with?
Join Mo and his friends in this latest wild adventure and learn all the answers!
Muppit Boy and the Wheel of Power
Muppit Boy and the Wheel of Power is a lively middle-grade superhero adventure centered on Mo Fitzroy, a thirteen-year-old whose body has been frozen at twelve by experimental nanotechnology. Now operating secretly as the superpowered Condor Kid, Mo can fly, move at incredible speed, and communicate with Charlie, a genetically enhanced California condor. His first official mission sends him after a group of missing boys, with an unexpected recruit serving as bait: Mason Rizzo, the athletic bully who once made Mo’s life miserable. Their investigation leads to Pleasure Island, a hidden facility where energetic boys generate electricity through exercise and competition.
Mo’s first-person narration gives the story its distinct personality. He’s smart, impulsive, insecure, funny, and sharply aware of how others see him, especially when it comes to his height and prominent nose. His rapid-fire commentary keeps the action buoyant, whether he’s holding up a collapsing Ferris wheel, rescuing a child from a fire, or worrying about how ridiculous his costume looks. Bowler also understands that superheroics are more interesting when they complicate ordinary life. Mo enjoys saving people, but he struggles with secrecy, sudden fame, friendship, and the possibility that he may never physically grow older.
The relationship between Mo and Mason provides the book’s strongest emotional thread. Mason’s arrogance and bullying gradually come into focus as products of humiliation, neglect, and a desperate need to feel capable. Mo’s response to him involves anger, envy, empathy, and eventually accountability on both sides. The Pleasure Island plot expands those concerns into a wider discussion of children who feel unwanted by schools and families. That theme is stated frequently and sometimes at length, but it’s grounded in specific boys with believable frustrations. The story becomes considerably darker once the apparent refuge reveals its hidden human cost, giving the climactic rescue real weight.
I’d recommend this book to readers around ages nine to fourteen who enjoy young heroes, secret identities, gadget-filled missions, animal companions, and plenty of physical action. It should especially connect with energetic or neurodivergent kids who’ve felt judged for the way they learn, move, or communicate. Readers already familiar with the first Muppit Boy adventure will have the most context, though Mo’s explanations make this installment accessible on its own. Beneath the flying, villains, and enormous human-powered wheel, this is a warm story about finding useful ways to be strong and extending grace to people who are still learning how to use their own strength.
Pages: 201 | ASIN : B0HDSS7BKP
Inner Space Aliens
Inner Space Aliens picks up with real momentum, taking Erik, Finna, and Kalli out of the afterglow of their earlier victory and dropping them into something murkier, stranger, and more subterranean. This time, the threat isn’t just a villain bent on conquest, but a whole hidden system of corruption under Iceland itself: Fjólsvin inherits Loki’s plans, the Morphytes dig toward geological catastrophe, and Erik, with his tetrachromacy and his ability to read Óðin’s aurora messages, is pushed into the role of leader whether he wants it or not. Along the way, the book braids together volcanic tremors, Huldufólk politics, Reme’s grief-haunted testimony about the attack on his village, and a cavern climax where Erik’s athletic discipline finally becomes destiny when he uses an arrow like a javelin and blinds Fjólsvin in the middle eye.
What I liked most is that the book understands Erik’s fear and doesn’t cheapen it. He isn’t brave in that polished, effortless way that can make young fantasy heroes feel prepackaged. He’s frightened, uncertain, analytical, often overwhelmed, and the novel lets that matter. His scenes have a nice inward pressure to them, especially when he’s trying to decode patterns in the aurora or convince himself he’s capable of carrying what Óðin expects of him. I also found the mythology unexpectedly affecting. The material around the Huldufólk, the fractured glyphics, and Queen Borghildur’s grave understanding of what Loki exploited gave the story a sadder undertow than I was expecting. Reme, too, adds a bruised human ache to the novel. His memories of seeing impossibly tall invaders with a third eye could have been handled as mere plot fuel, but they land with genuine trauma behind them, and that gives the book moral weight.
The writing itself is earnest, vivid, and sometimes wonderfully odd in ways I found charming. When it leans into landscape and atmosphere, it can be quite evocative. The northern lights as a coded language, the glittering blue caverns, the steaming grotesquerie of Fjólsvin’s lair, and the waterfall reveal near the end all have a bright storybook intensity that suits the novel’s mythic ambitions. The prose is a little overinsistent, and the dialogue can state emotions rather than letting them appear subtly. Still, I kept feeling the force of the imagination behind it. The book’s ideas are more interesting than they first appear to be. Beneath the adventure, there’s a recurring concern with inheritance, diluted power, betrayal born from resentment, and the burden of being chosen before you’re ready. I was especially drawn to the notion that lost grandeur and envy make the younger Huldufólk vulnerable to Loki’s promises. That gives the conflict a tragic contour rather than reducing it to simple good-versus-evil machinery.
Inner Space Aliens is imaginative and surprisingly tender beneath all its lava tubes and cosmic peril. It’s the kind of sequel that expands its world by making it weirder and sadder, while also giving Erik a satisfying turn at the center. I finished it feeling that the book’s heart is one of its strongest qualities, especially once the surviving characters come back together and the victory is shaded by the warning that the struggle underneath Earth is not over. I’d recommend it most to readers who enjoy YA fantasy with Nordic myth, hidden worlds, earnest heroism, and a taste for adventure stories where emotion and lore are allowed to sit side by side.
Pages: 230 | ASIN : B0GM8X2TSF
We Have More To Do
Pocket Watch Portals: The Timekeeper’s Revenge follows four siblings into an enchanted realm, who need to fix the time rift they accidentally created before the vengeful Timekeeper destroys every world. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
When I received the 1st book in the series, Pocket Watch Portal Adventure, my 3-year-old grandson Artie came to me with alligator tears, telling me, “I wasn’t done with us, we have more to do!” He started telling me about the fairy princess named Misty, and how she needs them to come back and save not only their realm but all realms. He described it as needing a “white Dragon,” later becoming the snow dragon, Erithon. and a unicorn, later named Ethel. The King & Queen, with the people of that realm, needed help to bind up the timekeeper due to the kids breaking the rules of time travel.
This book explores the consequences of time travel. Why was that important to include?
Thought about the fact that time travel would affect anything after that point and change things. So I kept this in line with the first story to show that if you don’t follow the rules, whether it be time travel or any rule, it has consequences.
Kindness plays a big role in solving problems. Was that a core theme from the beginning?
Kindness and all the core values are a part of Christian living, even though the mythical creatures and the time travel, I wanted to continue to show those values to my grandkids and the readers.
Will we see more adventures with these characters?
Absolutely, We are working on the 3rd & 4th story in the series.
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Pocket Watch Portal Adventure: The Timekeepers Revenge
Pocket Watch Portals follows Justice, Teddy, Ellie, and little Artie as they get pulled back into a magical realm after a strange storm hits their grandparents’ ranch. A fairy named Misty appears and explains that their past adventures accidentally caused a dangerous rift in time. Soon the kids, along with the always-dramatic Uncle Jeff, are flying on clouds, meeting dragons, riding unicorns, and scrambling to collect a powerful crystal and a legendary flower to stop the terrifying Timekeeper from returning. The story builds into a huge battle full of fairies, dragons, unicorns, and a very panicked Uncle Jeff trying to save the day.
The writing is playful and full of little jokes that made me grin. Artie’s sweet mispronounced words melted me, and Teddy’s wild confidence cracked me up. I kept wanting to nudge Justice to relax because he tries so hard to act responsible while everything around him just gets stranger and stranger. The whole thing gave me that warm, nostalgic feeling of childhood summer adventures that always got just a bit out of hand, and I liked that the world felt colorful and soft even when the stakes were high.
I didn’t expect a children’s book to dive into the consequences of time travel in such a fun way, and I liked how each kid had a specific role in fixing the problem. Teddy bonding with the giant snow dragon might be my favorite moment. It felt so pure. The book really leans into magic as something alive and emotional, not just flashy, and I found myself weirdly touched by how often kindness solves the problem rather than power. Even Uncle Jeff’s chaotic bravery felt genuine and sweet.
I’d totally recommend The Timekeeper’s Revenge for kids who love fantasy worlds, magical creatures, silly humor, and quick adventures that never sit still. It’s also great for adults who enjoy lighthearted stories that feel like stepping back into childhood for a bit.
Pages: 60 | ASIN : B0CW1JPBHW
The Visitors
A few years from now, Earth faces total annihilation, unless two determined aliens can rewrite its fate. Bjorn and Zorn, shapeshifting observers of our troubled planet, are horrified by what they see. Determined to save humanity from itself, they leap back through time to intervene. Their unlikely allies? A ragtag band of cynical animals: Dax, a chicken-nugget-loving Maine Coon; Penelope, an irreverent Adélie penguin; Florence, a thoughtful cow; and Ptoni, a prehistoric Pteranodon with attitude. Saving the world is serious business, but with this crew, chaos comes laced with comedy.
The Visitors by Andrew Cahill-Lloyd targets a young adult audience, though its wit and inventiveness easily appeal to older readers as well. Fans of Artemis Fowl will recognize the quick pacing and mischievous tone, while admirers of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett will find familiar notes of absurdity and satire.
Cahill-Lloyd excels at weaving eccentric characters and outrageous scenarios into a cohesive, fast-moving narrative. Beneath the laughter, however, pulse weightier themes, homophobia, racism, and the perils of blind faith. These serious undertones are handled deftly, introduced with humor and humanity rather than heaviness.
Each brisk chapter feels like an episode from a gleefully bizarre television series. The jokes land fast, the dialogue crackles, and amid the hilarity, flashes of insight remind us what’s at stake. Bjorn and Zorn’s advanced technology allows for wild journeys through time and space, yet it also highlights a sobering truth: humans, given such power, might not use it for good.
For all its zany energy, The Visitors is more than intergalactic farce. It’s sharp, funny, and oddly poignant, a whirlwind of wit and wonder that never overstays its welcome. Cahill-Lloyd writes with the kind of gleeful abandon that invites readers to laugh, think, and maybe cringe a little at their own species.
Pages: 264 | ASIN : B0FS6Y7YDK
The Unearthing
The Unearthing follows the Krigga family as they leave their suburban life behind for an old Georgian house in the countryside. The story is told mostly through the eyes of Anna, the middle child, who resents the move and resists every change. Her brother Rupert and sister Clara add their own voices to the chaos of sibling rivalry, while their parents try to hold the family together. Soon, the house itself begins to reveal secrets. Hidden staircases, strange rooms, eerie discoveries, and a foreboding tower nearby push the children into a world of mystery and unease. What begins as a family drama slowly shifts into something more shadowed, blending everyday struggles with a creeping sense of the supernatural.
The writing swings from tender to dramatic, sometimes even over the top, but that’s part of its charm. I could feel Anna’s anger like a living thing, the way she stomped and sulked and held on to her grievances. At times, I wanted to shake her. At other times, I wanted to comfort her. Tapia captures that messy middle-child energy perfectly, and while it could be grating, it also felt real. The imagery is thick and vivid, and I loved how it painted the old house as if it were alive, breathing with history and menace.
There were moments when I laughed at the squabbles between the siblings, then felt uneasy when the story leaned into shadows and whispers. The pacing could be uneven, lingering on moods a bit too long before getting to the action. Yet, when the eerie attic scenes or the crumbling gargoyles came into play, I was hooked. The book feels like a blend of family diary and gothic adventure.
I’d recommend The Unearthing to readers who enjoy stories about families in transition, especially when everyday life collides with something darker. Young adult readers might see themselves in Anna’s moods, while older readers may smile knowingly at the chaos of siblings and the weight of growing up. If you like your mysteries tinged with domestic squabbles, eerie houses, and a touch of the uncanny, this children’s fiction novel will speak to you.
Pages: 399 | ASIN : B08NCB4XKX
Marie Curie’s Radiant Quest: Dr. K’s Portal Through Time
Marie Curie’s Radiant Quest is a creative blend of historical biography, time-travel adventure, and science primer for curious young readers. Through the eyes of siblings Jennifer and Daniel, who travel with Dr. K through her magical portal, we get to witness the life, struggles, and triumphs of Marie Curie. From her early days in Paris to the discovery of radium and polonium, her groundbreaking Nobel Prizes, and her wartime work with mobile X-ray units, the book manages to cover both the sweep of her achievements and the personal grit behind them.
What I enjoyed most was how the story balanced real history with an almost playful sense of wonder. Curie describes the grueling, years-long process of isolating radium from pitchblende. The children’s questions bring an immediacy to the narrative, transforming what might otherwise seem like abstract science into a vivid account of perseverance and conviction. When Curie explains that discovery is rarely linear but instead filled with challenges and unexpected turns, the insight resonates deeply. It is a lesson that holds equal weight for adults as it does for younger readers.
I also liked how the book made science approachable without dumbing it down. In Chapter One, when Dr. K explains radioactivity, she compares unstable atoms to restless kids who can’t sit still and then to bubbles that “pop” to release energy. I was struck by the moment when Daniel exclaimed, “Pop? Like popcorn?” The lighthearted exchange underscores how effectively the book employs humor to make complex scientific concepts more accessible. It’s clever, and it makes concepts that would usually be intimidating feel relatable. The writing is clear, warm, and often funny; it kept me turning the pages even in parts I already knew from history.
Another standout for me was the way the book handled Marie Curie’s resilience as a woman in science. The narrative doesn’t shy away from the difficulties she faced, whether it’s being shut out of higher education in Poland or the immense skepticism she encountered in France. The moment when she becomes the first female professor at the Sorbonne felt huge, and it was powerful to see Jennifer draw strength from that as a young girl dreaming of her own future in science.
Marie Curie’s Radiant Quest left me with a real sense of admiration, not just for Curie, but for how stories like this can inspire curiosity in kids. The mix of adventure, history, and hands-on science makes it a great pick for classrooms, families, or anyone who wants to introduce children to one of the most remarkable figures in science. If you’ve got a young reader who asks “why?” a lot or if you’re an adult who still remembers the magic of discovery, this book is for you.
Pages: 116 | ASIN : B0F6M4MVX4
