Mystery Force Kids Books Series
Donation protected
UPDATE: BOOK 1 IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON ! BUT WE STILL NEED HELP FOR THE REST OF THE SERIES!
Last year 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 (Ted) a writer and I know something about stories. So with Macy as my patient guide, teacher, and consultant 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. Here they are:
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! Below are some of their friends.
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. Oh, and they have to contend with these baddies too:
Aaaand they make time to solve some mysteries and save the world too! Sometimes they get some help from the mysterious Preyton . . . a vigilante superhero . . . is he good, is he bad, is he is even a he and not a she . . . eh? Read to find out!
These are books aimed at primary school age/early readers. The ten stories are COMPLETE. But as a writer and not an artist I’ve reached out to the incomparable Suzi Spooner (some of her work here https://www.suzispooner.com/) to illustrate the books. As you may guess the visuals for these books will be SO KEY to inclusive representation. So Suzi’s work is the REAL magic here. Just in case you are wondering why Suzi is so important, let me demonstrate:
To that end, even with a generous discount on Suzi’s part because she believes in this project, great artwork takes time and effort (and come on, artists need to EAT!). For anyone who thinks I've missed my calling as a graphic artist, I have some names of good optometrists in your area . . .
So we’re raising money to pay for the books' illustrations. The break down is as follows. There will be three volumes (digital or print format) with three books in the first two volumes and four books in the final volume.
Volume 1: Books 1-3
Volume 2: Books 4-6
Volume 3: Books 7-10
Each book is approximately 10,000 words and will be illustrated on every page. We want to put them in sets of three books per volume because, let’s face it, kids read through books fast. We want to give parents value for their money.
Three books per volume also allows us to write in a trilogy structure so that the stories build on one another. This means fun call backs, running jokes, and deeper world building. All this rewards the reader in satisfying ways.
To illustrate one volume comes in at about 11,000 USD. It might be more for the last volume since it includes 4 books to wrap the series up. Right now we’re trying to raise funds to pay Suzi for the first volume (three books). Ultimately we’d like to raise enough for the whole series.
Want a sneak preview? We’ve got the first five chapters here (Macy and Destry even make a cameo).
If you believe in inclusive, fun books for kids of all ages, please share with your friend, families, and anyone else who might be interested and if you are so moved, please contribute. We promise when you see the final product, you will be glad you did.
On to the chapters 1-5 . . .
There you have it! If you'd like to see this project come together for our readers, we'd love your support in helping the Mystery Force ASSEMBLE!
Last year 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 (Ted) a writer and I know something about stories. So with Macy as my patient guide, teacher, and consultant 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. Here they are:
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! Below are some of their friends.
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. Oh, and they have to contend with these baddies too:
Aaaand they make time to solve some mysteries and save the world too! Sometimes they get some help from the mysterious Preyton . . . a vigilante superhero . . . is he good, is he bad, is he is even a he and not a she . . . eh? Read to find out!
These are books aimed at primary school age/early readers. The ten stories are COMPLETE. But as a writer and not an artist I’ve reached out to the incomparable Suzi Spooner (some of her work here https://www.suzispooner.com/) to illustrate the books. As you may guess the visuals for these books will be SO KEY to inclusive representation. So Suzi’s work is the REAL magic here. Just in case you are wondering why Suzi is so important, let me demonstrate:
To that end, even with a generous discount on Suzi’s part because she believes in this project, great artwork takes time and effort (and come on, artists need to EAT!). For anyone who thinks I've missed my calling as a graphic artist, I have some names of good optometrists in your area . . .
So we’re raising money to pay for the books' illustrations. The break down is as follows. There will be three volumes (digital or print format) with three books in the first two volumes and four books in the final volume.
Volume 1: Books 1-3
Volume 2: Books 4-6
Volume 3: Books 7-10
Each book is approximately 10,000 words and will be illustrated on every page. We want to put them in sets of three books per volume because, let’s face it, kids read through books fast. We want to give parents value for their money.
Three books per volume also allows us to write in a trilogy structure so that the stories build on one another. This means fun call backs, running jokes, and deeper world building. All this rewards the reader in satisfying ways.
To illustrate one volume comes in at about 11,000 USD. It might be more for the last volume since it includes 4 books to wrap the series up. Right now we’re trying to raise funds to pay Suzi for the first volume (three books). Ultimately we’d like to raise enough for the whole series.
Want a sneak preview? We’ve got the first five chapters here (Macy and Destry even make a cameo).
If you believe in inclusive, fun books for kids of all ages, please share with your friend, families, and anyone else who might be interested and if you are so moved, please contribute. We promise when you see the final product, you will be glad you did.
On to the chapters 1-5 . . .
There you have it! If you'd like to see this project come together for our readers, we'd love your support in helping the Mystery Force ASSEMBLE!
Organizer
Ted Neill
Organizer
Seattle, WA
