series

Middle Grade Fantasy/Detective Story

ByMichael Thal September 1, 2018

Chef Nana, the head cook at the New Harmonia, an exclusive New York City hotel, is dead. Her son, Michael Lawson, is tapped to replace her, and Chef Lawson needs to move from Chicago to New York with his son Stephen. Stephen Lawson is a pre-teen boy raised by a single parent….

A Rapunzel Story Better than the Grimm’s Fairy Tale

ByMichael Thal August 24, 2018August 24, 2018

Remember Rapunzel? She was a Grimm’s Brother’s princess locked in a tower and rescued by a prince willing to climb her long golden tresses to save her. Ever wonder what happened to the princess when released from her prison? Wonder no more. Leila Howland solved the dilemma in her creative fairy…

Amelia, the Merballs and the Emerald Cannon: Character Interview

ByMichael Thal August 19, 2018

About the Book Title: Amelia, the Merballs and the Emerald Cannon Author: Evonne Blanchard Genre: Children’s Books Amelia and Uglesnoo land on Mercury. They meet the Merballs, the friendly aliens that live there. All goes well, until an asteroid hits their planet. Amelia and Uglesnoo find themselves in deep trouble. How will they convince the Merballs of their innocence? And…

A Peter Pan Re-Telling Better Than the Original

ByMichael Thal August 15, 2018

In 1783 Wendy Darling was a foundling placed at the door of a London almshouse. As a child, she read The Live and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,and ever after longed to sail the seven seas and experience all the magical wonders of the world. Mortimer Black, another orphan, knew the ways of the…

Magic 2.0: A YA Fantasy Series

ByMichael Thal August 9, 2018

A twenty-three-year-old computer hacker illegally enters the computer of a cell phone manufacturer and finds a curious file. It’s huge with five terabytes of plain ASC11 text characters with a boring name—repository1-c.txt. He gives it a look and finds something curious; many of the numbers change constantly. Then he searches the file for his name….

5 Things You Can Learn from Supergirl

ByMichael Thal August 1, 2018

Supergirl has won the Saturn Awards for Best Superhero Adaptation Television Series three years in a row. It originally premiered on CBS October 26, 2015 and moved to the WB a year later where season four will unfold Sunday nights at 8:00 pm. Supergirl has lasted this long because actress Melissa Benoist (you may remember her as…

A YA Time Travel Romantic Mystery

ByMichael Thal July 22, 2018

Sixteen year old Kate has the CHRONOS gene enabling her to use the CHRONOS medallion grandma Katherine gave her to transport through time and space to just about whenever and wherever she chooses. However, Kate’s trips through time have a distinct purpose: stop grandfather Saul from annihilating most of the human race to create a…

A Paranormal Romeo and Juliet Story

ByMichael Thal June 17, 2018

Josh, a 17-year-old alcoholic, drives home after an evening of binge drinking. Two high school girls standing at a crosswalk are unseen until it’s too late. Josh is thrown through the windshield and dies immediately and Grace becomes a statistic. Josh finds himself in Death Valley talking to Lucifer, who offers him a deal he…

5 Motivating YA Books Kids Will Want to Read This Summer

ByMichael Thal June 11, 2018

As a reading specialist working for the Glendale Unified School District, I noticed a serious decline in reading skills of many of my students after a long hot summer break. According to researchers at the National Education Association (NEA), “Children can lose up to three months of reading progress over the summer months, and that loss…

The Shelby McDougall YA Mysteries

ByMichael Thal May 30, 2018

Due Date Shelby McDougall is a surrogate mother. Diane and Jackson Entwistle are paying her big bucks for her twins. When brother Dexter’s wife, Jessica, asks Shelby to leave their home because Jessica feels Shelby’s pregnancy will adversely affect her 3-year-old, Ashley, Shelby has no choice but to accept Diane’s offer to live in…