Young Adult author David Gatward is writing a new series of ebooks featuring 4 young kids who are kidnapped by a nefarious criminal Dr Crookshanks and his accomplice, Professor Kaufman. They are forced to jump “into” the classic adventure stories to steal famous fictional artifacts such as the map in Treasure Island, using a gadget called the Nautilus.
This new series of books is an Amazon exclusive and will be available for purchase worldwide. When you read the books using your Kindle you will be able to switch to the original version of the story. This is a great way for kids to experience some of the literary greats in a new and exciting way. The author mentioned the main premise for deciding to write the book was “I was struck by the fact that I’d never actually read Treasure Island. And you know what? It’s one of the greatest books I’ve ever read! Amazing to be able to read something written when it was that translates so well to a modern reader. And wouldn’t it be great if kids started discovering the classics anew because of booksurfers? However, the books are written to be tremendous adventures in themselves, with a great cast of characters, and some crazy stuff going on. To be frank, booksurfers is a total blast from start to finish, and with a classic thrown in, what’s not to love?”
Booksurfers is a joint project between David Gatward whom is best known for his YA Horror books, and intellectual property development company FourteenFiftyFour Ltd. Some authors find it challenging to move to different genres and make adjustments to their writing, but not David! He mentioned that “I’ve always loved horror! I love the movies, the books, old time radio stuff that I find on the net. But I’m not just horror! I’ve written other stuff as well as horror, including a series for Puffin for the 9-11 age category about football-playing angels (under the pseudonym Jake Lancing) and some ghost writing of young adult action thrillers. I’ve also done a couple of shorter books, too, one on skydiving and another on caving. So, essentially, I’ve never just stuck to one genre. As for adjustments? Booksurfers isn’t a horror situation, but there’s still plenty of jeopardy and threat and conflict, so I worked on those and did all I could to make the characters and situations they were in as real and as exciting as possible. I wanted the books to be a thrill to read in themselves, and if I’ve achieved that, then great!”.
Booksurfers seems like a innovative project allowing kids to jump into classic books. This premise has not really been tackled before and one wonders how ideas like this come to fruition. The author concluded the interview with his rational for writing the book. “Booksurfers was created by fourteenfiftyfour’s in-house team and I was brought in early to help develop it. For years I’ve been thinking how great it would be to have books that were interactive. You know, more than just the words, but with something else, an extra hook. This struck me as such an exciting idea that to be brought on board to join in the fun was one of the best things that’s ever happened to me! I worked with the 1454 team very closely to take the idea through to what we now have and it’s been a tremendous experience. The booksurfers themselves (Jake, Ryan, Becca and Harriet) and fantastic fun to write about, and exploring classic children’s books with them is fabulous as it really allowed me to think about the stories in a different way and to see them from a completely different angle. And being able to read a Booksurfers adventure, and to then ‘jump’ in to the original text of the book they’re exploring? Fantastic!”
The first two books Treasure Island and The Wonderful Wizard of OZ are out now. There are also two future books in the works such as Robin Hood and A Christmas Carol.
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Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
