Solving Mysteries, Saving the World, and being all around AWESOME.
Meet Rasheed, Jonathan, and Josephine and their magical animal helpers: Maximilian the fire fox, Dan the karkadan, Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent (but you can call her Quetzy). They're three unique kids who love mysteries (actually they hate mysteries, but they love solving them). Join them in their adventures where they take on evil doers and monsters while shattering the misconceptions and expectations of people who make the mistake of underestimating them.
BOOK 1 - MYSTERY FORCE ASSEMBLE: In this first adventure they cross the country and ocean in order to uncover who is behind the sweatshops exploiting the forced labor of magical creatures. Hi-jinks, hilarity, and heroism ensue!
BOOK 2 - THE CASE OF THE STOLEN HORN: On their second adventure they try to save their geometry teacher Ms. Weymont (she’s a Pegasus) who has been framed for stealing the drama teacher’s horn (he’s a unicorn). Danger, derring-do, and dynamic detective work follows!
BOOK 3 - On their third adventure, they trek into the mountains to get to the bottom of an unseasonable blizzard that threatens to bury their town. Ghosts and ghouls lurking in labyrinths and laboratories will try to terrify them into retreating. They will meet old adversaries and discover new friends. As usual, incredible combatting of crime will commence!
VOLUME 1: Enjoy books 1-3 all in one print edition or download.
BOOK 4 - On their fourth adventure, a perplexing problem presents itself in the form of powerful pharmaceutical companies, missing medicines, and a mysterious marauder: the Peryton. A hero? A villain? A thief? No one knows. It’s up to the kids to find out. Read on, as some pretty profound peryton predicaments are produced!
BOOK 5 - Their fifth adventure finds Rasheed and Dan the karkadan in prison, framed for a crime they didn't commit! Jojo and Jonathan, with the help of Maximilian and Quetzy, must find the real culprit before it's too late. Fabulously fashionable false facades will be unfolded to fool felonious foes!
BOOK 6 - In their sixth adventure, Chief Fiona Lumos has disappeared while investigating a series of museum break-ins. Rasheed, Jonathan, and Jojo, along with Dan, Max, and Quetzy are on the case. Their trail takes them to unexpected places. Rock crushers, rabbis, runaway trucks, and robberies fill up these pages. The kids will have to figure out if it’s new or not so new villains networking nefarious deeds together.
VOLUME 2 - Enjoy books 4-6 all in one print edition or download.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: A few years ago my friend Macy, who uses a wheelchair and has an animal companion named Destry, approached me with a problem: there weren't enough kids' books featuring kids with disabilities—especially stories where they could see themselves as heroes. After discussion and in the spirit of BEING the change we want to see in the world, we decided: hey, let’s write them ourselves. After all, I’m a writer and I know something about stories. So with Macy and a few other friends as my patient guides, we dreamed up MYSTERY FORCE, a ten book series featuring three friends, Rasheed, Jonathan, and Jojo who go about solving mysteries, going on adventures, and generally being AWESOME, while living with (and sometimes enhanced) by their disabilities.
Making these kids joyful agents of their own destinies was one of the guiding principles of the stories, as well as promoting understanding, tolerance, and resilience. The kids have their own animal companions, in the form of magical creatures—ones you’ve probably never heard of like karkadans, alicorns, and jackalopes. It’s taken for granted in Rasheed, Jonathan, and Jojo’s world that well-known fanciful creatures like dragons, unicorns, and griffins are not fantasies—the kids’ geometry teacher is a Pegasus!
But because of their lesser-known status, the kids’ animal companions face discrimination and exclusion. That is where the kids of Mystery Force share their own lessons of resiliency coaching and helping their friends navigate intolerance, ignorance, and stigma.
Aaaand they make time to solve some mysteries and save the world too!
These are books aimed at primary school age/early readers. The ten stories are COMPLETE. The first three books are available here. But as a writer and not an artist I’ve reached out to the incomparable Suzi Spooner (some of her work here) to illustrate the books. As you may guess, the visuals for these books are KEY for inclusive representation. So Suzi’s work is the REAL magic here.
To that end, even with a generous discount on Suzi’s part because she believes in this project, great artwork takes work (and come on, artists need to EAT!) So we’re raising money to pay for the rest of the series here at GoFundMe: https://gf.me/u/ywrhdw
