About this book
LOMA began with a simple question: what happens when the child at the centre of the adventure is not the one most adventure stories would have chosen first? Allen uses a wheelchair, but I never wanted his disability to be treated as either a limitation to overcome or a lesson for everyone else. It is part of who he is, part of how he moves through the world, and part of how the world responds to him. The real story is not about fixing him. It is about seeing him.
The MacIver family gave me a way to write about belonging without pretending belonging is always neat or easy. These are children who have come from different losses, different wounds, and different beginnings, but they have been gathered into a home where family is not defined by blood. That mattered to me. I wanted young readers to see that family can be built, chosen, protected, argued with, and still deeply loved.
The research behind LOMA was less about technology or distant worlds and more about paying attention to how children live inside difference. Disability, adoption, foster care, sibling loyalty, childhood fear, imagination, and courage all shape the book. The science-fiction elements give the story wonder and momentum, but the emotional centre remains very human: children trying to understand what is happening around them while learning how much they can trust one another.
I hope readers come away from LOMA with a sense that adventure does not belong only to the strongest, fastest, loudest, or most obvious hero. Sometimes the person who notices what others miss is the one who changes everything. The book is written for young readers who want mystery and imagination, but also for educators, librarians, and families looking for a story where disability representation, found family, and science fiction are woven together with care.
