I’ve been getting questions lately from people who are just hearing about the Ranger in Time series, so here’s a thread about that – including the newest title, Escape from the Twin Towers. 
The series is about a time-traveling search & rescue dog…a golden retriever who’s been trained in modern search and rescue techniques. And he can time travel, so he can go back in time to any historical disaster where his skills might be helpful. These were the first two books:
I’ve written more than 30 books for kids, and these have been the most popular, by far. The combination of a heroic dog, coupled with interesting history and lots of action, has a way of engaging even kids who don’t always love reading.
At my last bookstore event, an 8th grade boy was walking by the table with his mom, and his face lit up when he saw Ranger. “These are the first books I actually read instead of fake reading!” he told her. It made my day to know that.
Anyway…I spend a lot of time visiting schools to talk with kids about books and writing. At one of the first schools I visited after this series launched, a second grader raised her hand and said, “Could you please write a Ranger in Time book about 9/11?”
I smiled & told her I’d put it on the list of ideas in my writer’s notebook. But in my head, I was thinking, “Uh…no. I can’t write a kids’ book about that. It’s too recent, too raw, and too sad.” But then more kids asked. Every time I visited a school. And I realized something.
Those kids were born years after 9/11 and don’t have the memories we do as adults. To them, it’s an awful thing that happened in history, like Pearl Harbor is to many of us. They want to know more about it, but adults don’t like to talk about it. So kids are left wondering.
So that’s why there’s a Ranger in Time book about 9/11 now. When I was doing research, I read hundreds and hundreds of pages of testimony from survivors and first responders, interviewed people who escaped from the North Tower, and visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
That’s book 11 in the series, and there will be one more, coming out in July, called Ranger in Time: Attack on Pearl Harbor.
I realize that not everyone is comfortable with the idea of kids’ books that explore tough topics. But kids are both curious and hopeful about working to make the world better and more just. In order to do that, they need honest stories about history.
That’s the focus of a new nonfiction series I'm working on now. It’s called History Smashers, illustrated by comic artist & graphic novelist @dmeconis. It’s aimed at undoing the lies & myths we teach kids about history. The first 2 books come out in July from @randomhousekids.
