Books with author Mr Tom Szutu

ABOUT THE BOOK Written by 10 y/o Harrison and his father, the book is something like Ninja Turtles meets Star Wars but takes place on Wall Street with Captain Underpants style humour. It’s a hilarious children's book about 4 heroic mice that live in the sewers under Wall Street. They are taught the ancient ways of the Chi Energy Force by their teacher, Grandmaster Greenspan. The characters and the stories in the book are intended to entertain young readers with fun adventure tales while they learn the concept of money, how banking and financial systems work, interest rates, and the role of a central banker. It may also inspire readers to learn more about the historic events, facts and people introduced in the book. Children will enjoy learning with humour and new vocabulary while parents will appreciate the wide range of ideas and topics covered. BACKGROUND 10 y/o Harrison has always been a gifted reader and he loves books. When he was in Gr. 1, he was already reading at a Gr. 6 level. But his writing skill was extremely poor. In Gr. 1 and 2, Harrison was a super slow writer and could barely write anything. When he did write, it was usually just a few words. Sometimes at school or for homework, he would stare blankly at a piece of paper not knowing what to write or how to get started. It is not unusual for kids to have a hard time writing or doing assignments they had little or no interest in. But in Harrison's case, it was extremely bad. On June 20, 2014 at the age of 8, Harrison came up with an imaginary band of heroic mice who were ninjas. He would verbally tell his dad, Tom, silly stories about them, the imaginary fight scenes and the pranks they would pull on each other. His dad encouraged him to write out the scenes and draw the images he had in his head. Tom used the idea as a way to encourage and motivate Harrison to develop his writing skills. At bedtime in bed, Harrison would describe to his dad about the pranks the mice would pulled on each other. Tom would then add to what Harrison said with some of his own ideas. The next day, Harrison would write out these scenes. His dad didn’t care how silly those ideas were. He was just happy that Harrison was writing. After a while, Harrison would tape the scrap pieces of paper together to make his own "book". Even though these individual scenes, mini-stories and stick figure sketches were crude and childish, the creativity and passion was there. To further encourage Harrison, His dad jokingly said to him, 'if you write enough, we could turn this into a real book and publish it!' Tom never truly believed it was going to happen and thought that Harrison's interest would fade after a couple of months. But the opposite actually happened and his intense interest only grew from there. Harrison willing and freely wrote and wrote and constantly hounded his dad to write and brainstorm with him. During this process, Tom guided his son’s imagination in the context of history and real life events from the adult world. This went on for about a year and a half. Little by little, it started to come together. The characters we developed had so much detail that they felt real to Harrison and his dad. They inhabited the characters and they knew them inside out. Because of this, writing and storytelling became easier and easier. Eventually, the budding authors had enough material that they could actually turn into a real book; not just a bunch of scrap paper stapled together. The process of turning it into a real book and publishing is was very tedious and it took them another 6 months. They had to put everything together in a way that flowed and made sense. They revisit and revise the details of the characters, the story, the plot and the theme over and over, many times until it was consistent and it made logical sense. But eventually, after 2 years, they finished and published their book.