Alexandria "Xan" Anderson is not your typical 6th grade student. Her days consist of brainstorming, prototyping and building inventions. A genius of the highest order!

Setting: Minnesota and Xcel Academy- Xan interacts with her setting in an interesting and limited way.

As a child inventor myself, Xan channels my passion for brainstorming, prototyping, inventing and marketing into successful creations!

Age Range: 5th-7th grade readers

Book Lessons: I'm hoping readers will see how they can dive deep into their own passions, love who they are and, simultaneously, balance the social and friendship side of life.

What happens to your books when you donate them? I bet you never thought about that before ... well, now we have the inside scoop!

Little Book is the childlike protagonist (in book form) in this tale that takes the notion of judging a book by its cover and kicks it into overdrive.  Little Book is ten years old, and his author, Page Turner, is so frustrated with the process of trying to find a "traditional" publisher to publish him that she abandons him on the donation cart in a bookstore.

Setting: This book is set in the "Books'll Thrill Ya Bookstore," a contemporary two-story building in the heart of downtown Houston, Tx.

Age Range: Although "Never Turn the Page Too Soon," was written for middle-grade readers (9-12 year olds), adults have enjoyed reading it as well.

Book Lessons: Never Turn the Page Too Soon give middle-graders lessons about acceptance, perseverance, peer pressure, and remaining faithful to one's vision regardless of what others think. It also has a few pop culture references that parents of middle-grade readers will enjoy.

Check the book out on Amazon today.

What if you had a twin, and you both had super powers? How cool would that be?

I couldn't have one main character without the other. My main characters are called Ryan and Jake a set of identical twins who suffer heart-wrenching tragedy but wind up with incredible Super powers.

Ryan is the brains of the outfit, intelligent, calm and considered, whilst having great leadership skills.

Jake is the brawn; strong, quick, fast and with a fantastic heart. He would do anything for those he loves.

Setting: The book is set in the sleepy town of Trincaster, a small local neighbourhood in Northern England. A place where everybody knows everyone and the biggest news to come out of the place is the mysterious disappearance of the cakes at the local bakery.

The initial inspiration for the book came from my very own identical twin boys however all the characters are completely fictional. (I have to say that or they would argue over who is based on Ryan and who is based on Jake.

Age Range: 7 - 12 years old, although adults seem to love it too!

Book Lessons: That no matter what your family background is and what you have been through in life, you can be someone special. You are capable of amazing things and if you want to be successful badly enough you can and will be!

Get it on Amazon today!

Book two in the Step-By-Step series from Paul Breau is a book about sports, but even more, it's about anxiety, but it's written in a way that helps kiddos learn how to deal with anxious feelings.

Anxiety stinks, especially when you’re the smartest kid in the school. They call Jake Murphy 'The Brain' at Central Elementary School, but he can't outsmart the anxiety that makes him choke under pressure.

Jake enjoyed school and loved learning, but during a presentation in front of his classmates, his anxiety took over and he completely choked. After getting relentlessly bullied by mean classmates, Jake thought his life couldn’t get any worse. He was wrong…

In an effort to help him ‘build character,’ Jake’s parents signed him up for karate lessons. Now, Jake must learn how to deal with his anxiety and how to survive karate class.

Setting: The action in the book takes place at Central Elementary School and a karate dojo.

Age Range: 8 to 12

Book Lessons: How to deal with life's challenges, general anxiety, and difficult emotions. It is also about learning to stand up for yourself and your friends.

Check the book out on Amazon today.

Emma, Emily, and Emiliana, identical triplets, fed up with their parents, who never seem to do anything, run away to the circus. Emiliana is generally an easy-going girl, with two exceptions. One is if anyone hurts her sisters, as Toothless Tommy discovered in the second grade (he wasn't called "Toothless" before he stuck Emily's hair to her chair with duct tape). And the other is: once she's decided she's going to do something, then it's been Decided.

If you've ever studied English literature, you've probably heard the expression, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Although if you tried to look this up, you won't find it, because it isn't actually a quote from English literature. The expression comes from a play by William Congreve, who wrote something slightly different. But the point is, hell hath no fury like Emiliana when she's been Prevented.

Setting: Sir Surly's Surprising Sirkus is home to an irritable clown ("Never come between a clown and her vices!"), a jealous contortionist ("I've got a drawer full of bus schedules, can get you home from any city in America"), a mad ringmaster ("Children in danger is always good!"), and an autistic knife thrower ("-- "). But if that's too crazy, they can always run away to the rival circus, whose ringmaster seems to want them ("You are beautiful! You have grace! You are cooler than a cat in deep freeze!").

Age Range: 4th-8th grade.

Book Lessons: "Don't tell me you think entertainment is 'just for fun!'" Sir Surly shouted.

"Isn't that what the word means?" Emma asked.

"Good God no!" Sir Surly put his hands over his ears as if he were auditioning to model for an Edvard Munch painting. "We're sixty minutes from the Apocalypse and she thinks it's all about fun! You must understand." He advanced slowly on the Ems. "What people think is 'fun' defines who they are! Do you want to live in a world where fun is sarcasm and boredom? Fantasies of superiority? Do you want 'fun' to be watching people getting what's coming to them? Or would you rather live in a world of reckless joy, astonishment, humility, color, danger, and love? Hmm? If you believed that, why did you run away from Bo-Twenty? Answer me that one!"

"It might have had something to do with him trying to electrocute us," Emiliana said.

Check the book out on Amazon today.

Seven-year-old Maya is sad due to all of the changes in her life caused by the coronavirus pandemic. She misses in person school, her classmates, teachers, playdates and family visits.
Her 8th birthday is coming up. She is very worried that she won't be able to celebrate her birthday!

Setting: Our Bodies Stay Home, Our Imaginations Run Free is designed to help children cope with the impact of the pandemic. Inspired by an Emory Global Health Institute competition, Lora L. Hyler accepted the challenge to create a body of work for children that could be shared around the world. Mental health experts are concerned about the possible lasting effects of coronavirus. The book written for children ages 6-12 features a fictional 7-year-old girl, Maya and her brother, 10-year-old Bryan as they adjust to a life without a classroom and teachers, or face-to-face interaction with their friends, grandparents, or extended family.Seven-year-old Maya is sad due to all of the changes in her life caused by the coronavirus pandemic. She misses in person school, her classmates, teachers, playdates and family visits.
Her 8th birthday is coming up. She is very worried that she won't be able to celebrate her birthday!

Setting: Our Bodies Stay Home, Our Imaginations Run Free is designed to help children cope with the impact of the pandemic. Inspired by an Emory Global Health Institute competition, Lora L. Hyler accepted the challenge to create a body of work for children that could be shared around the world. Mental health experts are concerned about the possible lasting effects of coronavirus. The book written for children ages 6-12 features a fictional 7-year-old girl, Maya and her brother, 10-year-old Bryan as they adjust to a life without a classroom and teachers, or face-to-face interaction with their friends, grandparents, or extended family.

Age Range: 6 to 12

Was this book based on anyone you know?

Check the book out on Amazon today.

If you like zombies, you're going to love this book, and probably love this series.

Johnny Graphic is twelve years old and he's realized his dream of becoming the youngest news photographer in the Plains Republic. He's intrepid and feisty and sometimes fearless when he oughtn't to be. Like any good journalist, he has a passion for truth and justice. He sometimes gets into nasty pickles. The year is 1935 and in Johnny’s world ghosts are very real. But unlike our ghosts, Johnny's are creatures of physics, not supernatural phenomena. Most wraiths are friendly to the living. But a few ancient ghost assassins are on the warpath, out to kill Johnny’s sister Melanie—for reasons the kids don’t even begin to understand. The two siblings have to unravel a deadly ghost conspiracy that reaches around the globe and threatens the lives of millions. Or die trying!

Setting: The Johnny Graphic Adventures Trilogy is an alternative-history ghost tale set in the mid-1930s on a continent much like ours. But the First Border War of the 1860s, instead of uniting a vast country, tore it apart—into four separate nations. Johnny, his sister Mel, his Uncle Louie, and Louie's ward Nina Bain live in the metropolis of Zenith, in the Plains Republic. (His parents are not present because they vanished in a blizzard years earlier, off studying the ghostly ice wolves of Okkatek Island.)  Johnny works in a hectic, noisy newsroom right out of the The Front Page or His Girl Friday. Think any lively 1930s police drama or screwball comedy, and you'll have an idea of what Johnny's world looks like. He and his friends tool around in big touring cars and take long journeys in flying boats like the Como Eagle and Gianelli Z-509. Of course, Johnny and Nina can also fly on horseback with any of the members of the First Zenith Cavalry Brigade—a troop of mounted ghost soldiers of the First Border War who serve the Graphic family. But Johnny's not all that fond of clinging to a ghost horse thousands of feet up in the air. But he'll do it, if he must.

Age Range: 9 to 13

Book Lessons: A real "Johnny Graphic, Ace Photographer" is quite improbable, of course. But I hope to impart the notion that it's never too early to find that special dream and start working toward making it a reality. And one must understand that there will be all kinds of roadblocks in the way. One must work and work and work and never give up, even in the face of rejection—if you believe that dream is worth it.

Check the book out on Amazon today.

Little Hunterman is the cartoon dog version of a rather shy and risk-averse Parson Russell Terrier called Hunter.

He fears open windows but loves to be outside, dislikes dog food but treasures found leftovers (and croissants), detests changes in his holy routines and rituals but delights in extra rounds if they include rat-chases of any kind.

Little Hunterman has a strong sense of order and how the world around him is supposed to behave. No exceptions — unless he came up with the idea himself.

Setting: Little Hunterman's natural doggie surroundings: mostly asleep at home, on walks along the riverside, on kitchen duty, and on the lookout for wee-mail.

Age Range: 9 to 99

While Little Hunterman has similar day-to-day issues as many little kids, who try to navigate the big world outside, find friends, find ways to eat the "wrong" stuff, etc, some of the associations will only reveal themselves to older and more "experienced" humans.

According to a test group (Little Hunterman has over 20.000 organic fans on Facebook -- which I have been neglecting a bit due to catching Covid), different ages resonate with the book for different reasons.

The optics are the same as the Wimpy Kid books.

Book Lessons: Mostly, to feel good and more confident about themselves.

Little Hunterman hassles with a lot of things (especially with being little and extremely scared of most things), he also has a way to explain things to himself, which is very naive and somewhat funny. He tries to understand what is going on around him despite having very limited information. 9-year-olds will mostly be way ahead of him when it comes to his deductions, which usually makes them feel good. At the same time, Little Hunterman is, like most dogs, incredibly loving. While Flynn, his rubber duck, might have a mean strike, Little Hunterman loves anyone but rats. Even cats!

To notice how you can appreciate someone who is so full of flaws and weaknesses seems to be very empowering to kids.

I also try to point out that humor does not require anyone to get hurt in the process. You don't have to team up and bash someone to have fun.

Check the book out on Amazon today.

Madison is just like any other twelve-year-old mucking through middle school, until suddenly she's not. Her father's disappearance sparks a shocking revelation. Madison isn't human. She's Sidhe. The Sidhe are a regal, god-like people with unearthly beauty and unfathomable grace. They are the immensely powerful, magic-wielding faeries born in Celtic Mythology… the water, air, and wood spirits who have battled against demons and protected mankind for centuries. Madison has just discovered she is one of them… but she is no ordinary Sidhe. Madison is one of the Chosen Ones, one of three young girls secreted inside the human realm at birth, protected by Sidhe guardians until they’re old enough to fulfill the prophecy. Madison journeys into Otherworld to awaken her powers, only to discover she must fight violence, evil, and darkness... with love.

Setting: The story unfolds across several realms. Madison discovers her true identity while searching for her father in Ireland. She must travel through the Tomies Wood in Killarney, County Kerry Ireland to access a portal into Otherworld. Once in Otherworld, Madison crosses through Tír na nÓg into Ogham so she can awaken her powers beneath the Rowan Tree. She hones her skills with warriors and druids in Tír na nÓg before returning to the human realm. They face their enemies in an epic battle over the Devil's Punch Bowl in Killarney. Readers are immersed in a magical realm where the Sidhe live in harmony with nature, in an advanced civilization that has no need for... {{{gasp}}}... technology.

Age Range: 8 to 12

Was this book based on anyone you know? Yes! Madison's character was inspired by my daughter Madison. The Chosen Ones are the literal embodiment of faith, hope, and love. I chose to have Madison represent love because she is so kind and loving toward all creatures (including worms!). She has so much empathy, love, and respect for animals she chose to become a vegetarian when she was eleven years old. She was so devoted to this cause, she eventually convinced me to become a vegetarian. Madison's family members in the book mirror her family members in real life. Her sister Lexie has a kidney transplant in the story and in real life. And Madison's godmother/Sidhe guardian in the story is her godmother in real life.

Book Lessons: The primary lessons are:
1. You can overcome violence, evil, and darkness with faith, hope, and love.
2.  I challenge readers to view the world not in black and white but in shades of gray. In Saving Tir na nOg creatures that have historically been viewed as evil are simply misunderstood. For example, the kelpie only drowns those who seek to harm him, and he will occasionally invoke his magic to bring those in need of protection with him, deep within the lough. It’s true the Far Darrig may cause nightmares and swap human babies with changelings but only when it serves a greater good. The Fomorians are an angry, violent sort, but this is due to some physical deformities that cause excruciating pain. Dain, Dother and Dub may represent violence, evil, and darkness, but there is a reason for this as well, which is yet to be disclosed.
3. There are several mini-lessons woven within this book relevant to prejudice, value judgments, labeling others, pigeonholing, environmentalism, our dependence on technology, and the importance of kindness, self-sacrifice, friendship, family, believing in yourself, and working together toward common goals.

Check the book out on Amazon today.

What's worse than having a monster of a little brother? How about an actual monster? Learn all about this great book by Jason Lady in today's featured book article.

Age Range: 9 to 12

Ice skating, best friends, and a bully.

Siarra Jones and her best friend Mia love ice skating. They are super excited to start their new lessons. If they pass the class, they’ll get to join an elite skating group. Unfortunately, sometimes life has a funny way of pulling the ice out from under you. Siarra Jones Skating Into Trouble is an exciting, fast-paced story about a smart, thoughtful, and adventurous young girl struggling to find a way to deal with a faster skater who picks on her.

Siarra Jones Skating Into Trouble is an anti-bullying story that promotes a positive growth mindset.

Setting: The action in the book takes place on the ice skating rink of a community center and Central Elementary School.

Is the book based on anyone from real life: The main character is based on the author's ten-year old daughter and a real-life experience she had ice skating.

Book Lessons: Siarra Jones Skating Into Trouble is an anti-bullying story that promotes a positive growth mindset. It's all about kids overcoming difficult challenges and helps learn how to deal with problems life could throw in their way.

Check the book out on Amazon today.