Example book · For Theo, age 9
Theo and the Question Lantern
Theo never stops asking why. One dark night in Fennick Wood, his questions are what lead everyone home.
Start a story like thisAbout the story
Theo Whitfield is nine, and he asks why about everything: why moths like the porch light, why maps put north at the top, why grown-ups say "because" when they don't actually know.
Every autumn the village of Fennick holds the Lantern Walk, a night parade through the woods to the old stone bridge. This year, halfway there, every lantern goes out at once. The path disappears. The grown-ups tell the children to hold hands, stay put, and please stop asking so many questions.
Theo can't. Why did the lanterns all go out at the same moment? Why is the moss only on one side of the trees? Why are the moths flying toward the hill instead of away from it? Each question turns up a clue, and each clue lights a few more steps. By the time he reaches the bridge he is leading half the village, and he has figured out what has been eating the light in Fennick Wood.
What Dana told us
This is all it took to start. We followed up with a few questions by email, then wrote the story.
"He asks why about forty times a day. Loves bugs, flashlights and maps. He's scared of the dark but would never say so."
Everything that came with Theo's book
Every book includes all of this. Share one piece or all of them, with whoever you like.
The full printed book
164 pages, bound, with Theo's name on the cover. It arrived in about 2 to 3 weeks.
A story written for Theo
Theo's flashlight habit became the lantern, and his fear of the dark became the thing he gets past. The questions are what save everyone.
The audiobook, in his mom's voice
Dana read a short script into her phone. Every chapter of the audiobook is in her voice, so Theo can hear her read to him at bedtime even when she's traveling.
A version to download
The same book as a PDF and as a Kindle file, for a phone, a tablet or an e-reader.
A short video summary
About 3 minutes. Dana sent it to both sets of grandparents the day the book arrived.
A dedication and a foreword
For Theo, who asks the questions the rest of us stopped asking.
Dana wrote a one-page letter to Theo that opens the book. We helped her trim it.
Share it the way you want
Dana shared the audiobook and video with the grandparents and kept the PDF to herself. Theo's dad got everything. The QR code inside the cover takes each of them to the parts she picked.