In 2016, I wrote my first book, a novel for middle schoolers called The Zoo of Impossible Animals: Into the Underzoo. I have done presentations and signings of the book in dozens of elementary schools around Southern California. It is an exciting adventure story written especially for kids with short attention spans. It is available through De Portola Press or through Amazon here. 
From the book’s back cover:
“For thirteen-year-old Jake Jinks and his big sister Miranda, their summer in rural New Mexico takes a bizarre turn when a mysterious ink monkey named Pablo appears on their doorstep. It turns out that Pablo’s home is the Zoo of Impossible Animals—a top-secret facility dedicated to capturing possibly extinct, probably mythical, and unquestionably dangerous animals called cryptids. With the Z.IA.’s eccentric owner Dr. Cazador, Jake and Miranda encounter poison-burping tatzelwurms, two-tailed cats called Bakenekos, and a blue tiger named Chung-Mae. When cryptids start disappearing, however, they have uncover the deadlier, even more top-secret Underzoo as well as a gang of villains.”
An excerpt from the Prologue:
“It’s weird what someone thinks about in the moments before a giant blue tiger tears him into a million pieces.
For Jake Jinks, he thought about what a jerk he’d been. Why hadn’t he been a better son to his mom? Why hadn’t he been nicer to his sister? Why did he pull so many pranks and get kicked out of so many schools? Why did he basically force his family to move from Washington, D.C. to rural New Mexico?
But at this particular moment, the thought that really nagged at him was: How in the world did he wind up in the cage of a maniacal, blue tiger?
However, the time for regrets was officially over. The tiger leaped, its razor-sharp claws catching the morning sunlight.
This was going to hurt, thought Jake, shutting his eyes.
This was going to hurt a lot.”
Buy a copy of the novel on Amazon or using the link below!
