I stumbled into writing kids’ books a few years ago, and in doing so, I discovered a love for creating books that made kids laugh. When I published the final book in The Adventures of Zelda series, I knew I wanted to write another kids’ book series, but I didn’t know what.
In the fall of 2016, amidst a job transition with my husband and caring for a new little guy in our house, I felt the itch to start a new writing project. Without the time or bandwidth to write quite yet, I decided to do some research on the kids’ book market. I went to the local library, talked with the children’s librarian and checked out the books that she said were the most popular. For the most part, I knew many of those books and series.
Over the next few weeks, I read through the books and found myself disappointed in what I was reading. The books were funny, but often at the expense of a kid in the story. I often didn’t like the main characters in these books because of their bad attitude or disrespect toward teachers, siblings, and even parents. After reading several of these books, along with a few great ones, I began to brainstorm what would become Alien Kid.
I created Alien Kid to be a series for middle grade readers (think 9-12 year olds) that makes kids laugh, but not at the expense of others. Charlie Baker, the main character in Alien Kid, is not perfect. He makes mistakes, but he learns and grows from those mistakes. Alien Kid is a book that parents and grandparents can hand to their kids and not worry that they will learn a bad habit or idea from the story. Instead, he or she can laugh at Charlie’s funny sayings while getting transported into a story about a kid who is trying to find his place in the world, like every one of us.