5 Things You Might Not Know About Evan's Gift by Karen Charles

 

5 Things You Might Not Know About Evan's Gift

By Karen Charles

1. The setting of the story is in Nigeria, West Africa, where the author, Karen Charles, grew up. It takes place at the American boarding school she attended and the town where her parents worked.
2. Evan’s Gift is based on a true story of Karen Charles working to earn enough money to buy a bicycle when she was growing up in Africa.
3. 
   
   Evan’s Gift was originally published in 1984. Karen Charles rewrote the story and republished it. 
4. The illustrator of Evan’s Gift is a world-renowned installation artist who resides in and has a studio in Seattle, Washington. 
5. Evan’s Gift is a children’s story intentionally aligned with CASEL’s Social-Emotional Learning framework. Through an engaging, age-appropriate narrative, the book supports the development of:

• Social Awareness – recognizing kindness, empathy, and the feelings of others
• Self-Awareness – understanding emotions and the impact of one’s actions
• Relationship Skills – practicing caring behavior, respect, and positive interaction
• Responsible Decision-Making – choosing kindness even in small, everyday moments

Evan’s Gift provides a natural entry point for classroom discussion, reflection, and connection, making SEL concepts meaningful and accessible to students ages 5–12.

Karen Charles has a page of discussion questions in the back of the book that parents and teachers can use with their children. She has also developed teacher question-and-answer guides and student handouts free for the asking.

About the Author

Karen Charles grew up in West Africa and traveled to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Her rich background and lifetime experiences are reflected in the depth of her writing. In her stories, she transforms real-life narratives into gripping fiction thrillers. Her novels intricately weave the threads of truth into a tapestry of suspense, intrigue, and riveting storytelling. She is the author of two children’s books, “Freeman Earns a Bike” and “Evan’s Gifts,” and three thrillers based on true stories. “Fateful Connections” takes place in the aftermath of 9/11, and “Blazing Upheaval” takes place during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles and the Northridge earthquake. “A Glimpse Too Far” offers all the mystery and heart-pounding suspense of a psychological thriller and is based on a true story.

Karen Charles has two businesses—a global company that trains international teachers to teach American English and an Airbnb on a beautiful bay in Washington State, where she currently resides with her husband. 

Visit her website at www.weaveofsuspense.com. 

Connect with her on X, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About the Book:

When Evan trades his dream of a new bike for compassion, he discovers the greatest gift of all—helping others.

 

Ethan’s Gift is available at BookBaby.

Character Profile Sheet for Molly Parmell from Barbara Jean Weber's ‘The Welcome Sign’

 

Years ago (and still applies today), the experts were telling fiction writers that in order to really know their main character, they must come up with a character profile sheet for them and definitely applies to all your characters as well.  This is a good practice because once you know all the ins and outs of all your characters, the book flows better and allows the author to get inside the head of each of their characters.

We decided to ask authors if they would like to come up with a character sketch of their main character, throwing in a few unique questions to make it really fun!

Today we have Barbara Weber stopping by on her blog tour with a character sketch of her main character, Molly Parmell. Enjoy!

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Learn more about Molly!

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Name of Character: Molly Parmell

Age: 10 years old

Eye Color: Blue

Hair Color: Brown

Birthplace: Popular Bluff, Missouri

Marital Status: Single

Children: None, she's only 10 years old

Place of Residence: Initially Popular Bluff, Missouri, but as the story progresses they move to Barnstable, Massachusetts on Cape Cod-to the grandmother's house. The house in Barnstable is a large, white, 2 story, Victorian style house with a dark green trim all around the windows and doors. A long, covered porch is wrapped around the house lending itself to a fabulous view of the ocean. On the second level is Molly’s bedroom with a door that opens onto a smaller covered porch. The room is decorated with delicate little seashell patterns on the wall trim just above the chair railing 2 feet off the floor. The smoky white curtains have sandy colored embroidered shell patterns scattered here and there on the fabric. Several glass bowls sit on the old dresser by the wall, filled with brightly colored seashells.  There is a large seashell shaped lamp by the bed, the paint chipping off on both sides. Angela's room is right next door and is filled with dashes of blues and greens. A large lighthouse lamp sits on the bedside table. The grandmothers room is on the first floor  next to the staircase and opens up onto a small deck overlooking the ocean. Her room is decorated in purples and pinks. Several elegantly painted fish and sea creature wall hangings cover the walls. A few large and impressive looking shells are also showcased in this room. From every window in the house there is a spectacular view of the ocean.

Description of Home: Popular Bluff, Missouri: Barnstable, Massachusetts (grandmothers house)

Dominant Character Traits: Courageous, adventurous, honest, friendly.

Best Friend: Taran Deevins

Temperament: Optimistic, persistent, easy-going, adventurous, curious

Ambition: Seeks adventure and action

Educational Background: She's in 4th grade

Philosophy of Life: Make lots of friends and have fun

Bad Habits: Bites her nails

Talents: Creative writing, arts and crafts, problem solving, good social skills, independent.

Hobby or Hobbies: Makes beaded jewelry, reads

Why is Character Likeable? Molly isn't perfect but she is very relatable and interesting. She has struggles and insecurities common to 10 year olds, striving to be independent but also being close to her loved ones. She possesses admirable traits such as courage, kindness, being adventurous. Molly will make audiences cheer for her success as she makes new magical friends, battles bad guys and helps save the magical realm. She will delight the audiences with her amazing adventures and courageous journeys throughout this book. 

Favorite Pig Out Food: Chicken soft tacos

Character Mini-Interview:

Every New Year’s I resolve to: Eat less chicken soft tacos, Make new friends

Nobody knows I am: Afraid of tumble weeds and allergic to bananas

I wish: I lived closer to my grandmother and that my mom and grandmother didn't argue so much.

A good time for me is: Hanging out with friends, having a sleepover, eating pizza, and playing games.

When I feel sorry for myself: I get a hug from my mom, talk to my mom.

My friends like me because: I am friendly, kind to others and like to have fun adventures.

My major accomplishment is: Getting good grades in school.

My most humbling experience was: I thought I was going to ace a test in English so I didn't study as much as I should have and I failed the test.

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Learn more about Barbara Weber!

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Barbara Jean Weber lives in Skagit County with her husband and two daughters, where she works as a speech and language therapist. Her novel, The Welcome Sign, was inspired when she was gifted a mermaid welcome sign. The more she studied the sign, the more her story evolved. She is currently an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Visit her website at https://www.barbarajeanweber.com/. 

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Inside the Book

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When 10-year-old Molly Parnell’s grandmother mysteriously disappears she and her mother travel

to Cape Cod to take ownership of the house they inherited and find out answers about the sudden disappearance. But what they discover could be more dangerous and life changing than they ever imaged. Molly and her mother find a beautiful mermaid welcome sign in the attic and place it on the front door. Unusual things start to happen and they are flooded with visitors who claim they knew the grandmother.  The true powers behind the mysterious sign are revealed as Molly learns her grandmother was part of a secret organization working to keep balance between the magical realm and the real world. The magical realms placed an invisible veil of secrecy over the world to hide their true identities from the human world but allowing them to live among them  in secret. An angry rebel group of magical beings, tired of living in hiding is tearing down and destroying the magical cloaking fabric between the two worlds. If they are not stopped the magical realm will no longer be safe from the world.  As Molly and her mom embark on a dangerous and magical adventure throughout the magical realms to help stop  the rebels, she learns of her own magical powers and her strong family heritage connected to the welcome sign. Along the way, she teams up with new magical friends helping to keep the realm of magic safe from the eyes of the world and discovers that her grandmother was right all along. The world she thought she knew no longer exists, but an amazing world of magic woven into their world has always been hiding  in plain sight.

Read sample here.

The Welcome Sign is available at Amazon.  

📙 A Bookish Word or Two with Theresa Cheung, Author of NightBorn #abookishword

 

 

On A Bookish Word or Two, we have a guest post by Theresa Cheung, author of NightBorn.  Theresa is an internationally bestselling author and public speaker. She has been writing about spirituality, dreams and the paranormal for the past 25 years, and was listed by Watkins Mind Body and Spirit magazine as one of the 100 most spiritually influential living people in 2023. She has a degree in Theology and English from Kings College, Cambridge University, frequently collaborating with leading scientists and neuroscientists researching consciousness. Theresa is regularly featured in national newspapers and magazines, and she is a frequent radio, podcast and television guest and ITV: This Morning's regular dream decoding expert. She hosts her own popular spiritual podcast called White Shores and weekly live UK Health Radio Show: The Healing Power of Your Dreams. Her latest book is the paranormal thriller, Nightborn, available at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

You can visit her website at www.theresacheung.com or connect with her on X, Facebook, Instagram or Goodreads.

  

In her book, NightBorn, Alice Sinclair, a driven psychology professor, is about to find out what if the line between your waking life and your darkest dreams disappeared forever? When thousands of people begin experiencing terrifying, vivid nightmares … all centered around her, Alice’s quiet academic life is shattered. Haunted by the question of why she’s become the subject of these shared dreams, Alice embarks on a desperate search for answers, uncovering a chilling secret: someone – or something – hungry for global power has discovered a way to manipulate consciousness itself. The world is fast becoming a playground for those in control of the dreaming mind.  In a heart-stopping race against time, Alice must navigate a treacherous web of deception, where nothing – and no one – can be trusted, not even herself.

Read a sample.

NightBorn is available at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Read below what inspired Theresa to write her book. 

Some Dreams Refuse to Stay Silent: How NightBorn Found Its Way Into the World by Theresa Cheung

For more than twenty years, dreams have been the centre of my professional universe. I’ve spent my life studying them, interpreting them, writing about them, and when I’m very lucky helping people understand the extraordinary intelligence hidden in their sleeping minds. My readers know me for my dream

dictionaries (including The Dream Dictionary A–Z, originally The Element Encyclopaedia of 20,000 Dreams), my research into the afterlife, spirituality, intuition, and all the places where science meets mystery. I’m also the resident dream expert on ITV’s This Morning, where callers regularly share the inner landscapes that puzzle or inspire them.

So yes, I’ve been called the British grande dame of dreams and, on some days, I happily accept the title. But NightBorn, my debut novel, is something different. It’s the book that came not from analysis or academic study, but from a creative impulse I simply couldn’t contain. In many ways, it feels like the dream I’d been waiting for my whole life.

Dreams in My DNA

My fascination with dreaming didn’t begin in a library. It began at home. I grew up surrounded by family members who spoke openly about intuition, symbolism, and spiritual experiences. Dream interpretation was woven into everyday conversation. By the time I went to King’s College, Cambridge to study Theology and English, I already saw dreams as both deeply personal and universally significant. They aren’t just psychological events—they’re stories, messages, mirrors, warnings, and sometimes gifts.

For years, my mission has been to normalise dreamwork, to show that dreams hold profound insights into emotional, spiritual, and creative life. But as much as my nonfiction books reached countless readers, I knew that many younger audiences, like my own daughter, arely pick up spiritual or psychological nonfiction.

I couldn’t shake the question:
How could I speak to readers who love stories but would never open a dream dictionary?

The Spark Came From My Daughter’s Bookshelf

My daughter devours gothic fantasy and dark psychological fiction. She reads with a passion I envy but she has never been even mildly tempted to read my reference books.

One afternoon, watching her tucked into a corner with some atmospheric, shadowy novel, a thought struck me with startling clarity: What if I slipped dream interpretation into a story she couldn’t resist?

That moment planted the seed. I began imagining a novel where everything I’ve discovered about dreams, archetypes, and the subconscious could hide beneath a narrative full of tension, mystery, and emotional punch. A book that felt like a dream, beautiful, unsettling, layered, while quietly teaching readers how to understand their own inner worlds.

That idea became the heartbeat of NightBorn. Every major character carries some connection to dreams, psychology, or the unseen workings of the mind. Their conflicts and revelations echo the symbolism I’ve studied for decades. And the core message - Some dreams must be set free, Nightmares, after all, are dreams too - became both the theme and the spine of the story.

A Leap Into the Unknown

Despite my enthusiasm, writing fiction was far outside my established world. I knew how to structure a dream dictionary, how to analyse symbols, how to explain spiritual concepts clearly but writing a novel requires a wholly different set of muscles.

I had to learn those muscles from scratch.

I consulted trusted author friends, took workshops, and accepted critique I knew would sting. Slowly, the manuscript grew more layered, emotional, unpredictable, just like the dreams that inspired it.

Finishing it was a victory. What came next was the challenge.

When I sent NightBorn to my longstanding nonfiction publishers, the response was warm but firm. They didn’t want me wandering outside the spiritual/dream niche they had built around me. Fiction simply didn’t fit their expectation of what a “Theresa Cheung book” should be.

The polite rejection hurt but it also crystallised how deeply I believed in this story. So I took a risk. I partnered with an indie press, knowing I would receive no advance and little of the traditional publishing safety net I had once relied on.

It felt like jumping without seeing the ground. But sometimes the only way to honour a dream is to leap.

Five Years of Detours and Determination

From the first notes in my journal to the finished copy landing in my hands, NightBorn took nearly five years to come to life. I rewrote it countless times between my nonfiction deadlines. I questioned myself. I doubted whether anyone would ever read it.

But the story wouldn’t let me go. And I’ve learned over decades of dreamwork that when something refuses to be silenced - whether it’s a dream or an idea - you must pay attention.

One of the most delightfully unexpected turns in this journey involved the cover. We had no budget for a designer, so my son-in-law offered to try creating something. The result is striking, eerie, and unmistakably NightBorn. Readers tell me it gives them chills. Some say it triggers dream recall. I couldn’t imagine a better response.

A Story With a Purpose Hidden in Its Pages

Many readers on Goodreads have given me reactions that surprised and moved me. People talk about the plot and the characters, of course but many also say the book made them remember their dreams again, or think differently about their subconscious, or reflect on aspects of themselves they had ignored.

That reaction means everything to me because it reflects the book’s true intent.
NightBorn is, on the surface, a psychological thriller. Beneath that, it’s a secret guidebook - a way of showing readers how powerful their inner worlds really are.

Dreams are natural healers. They are storytellers. And they are teachers. I believe dreamwork should be as essential as reading and writing in early education. Imagine if every teenager knew how to listen to the messages their psyche sends each night. Imagine how empowered they would feel.

My Fictional Love Letter to the Dreaming Mind

NightBorn is the book that unites both halves of myself: the researcher and the dream evangelist, the scholar and the storyteller. It represents my belief that fiction can sometimes carry truth more powerfully than facts alone.

My hope is simple: That NightBorn encourages readers - especially those who might never pick up a nonfiction guide - to honour their dreams again. Because some of the most transformative journeys begin quietly, in darkness, with a dream that refuses to be ignored.