The Junior Squad of Questionable Decision Making
One of the questions I get asked most about The Summer We Started a Robot War is whether the characters are based on real people.
The short answer is yes.
The longer answer is that none of them are just one person.
Ember, Ollie, and Sully are really an amalgam of the kids I grew up with. Every neighborhood has them. The fearless one who always wanted to see what was in that abandoned building. The tinkerer who could take apart anything, although putting it back together was another story. The cautious friend who somehow ended up tagging along anyway because, deep down, he wanted the adventure just as much as everyone else.
Growing up in Northeast Philadelphia, our summers were spent outside until the streetlights came on. We wandered Pennypack Park, climbed over fallen trees, fished in the creek, explored storm drains that probably should have stayed unexplored, and convinced ourselves that every rundown structure had a secret hidden inside. Looking back now, it is amazing any of us made it home without becoming a cautionary tale.
You write what you know and those memories became the foundation for this story.
When I started writing this, I did not want to create superheroes. I wanted kids who felt like the ones I knew. Kids who argued, laughed, made terrible plans, and somehow stumbled into extraordinary situations.
That idea even found its way into one of my favorite jokes in the book.
At one point, Fenwick affectionately refers to the trio as the Junior Squad of Questionable Decision Making. It is a title that sounds ridiculous, but it also feels earned. What started as a throwaway joke, has really become their persona.
Because if I am being honest, looking back at my own childhood, there were plenty of moments that would have qualified us for membership.
Exploring a storm drain because we wanted to know where it went? Check.
Walking through the woods convinced we were tracking monsters instead of raccoons? Absolutely.
Building ramps that had no business supporting a bicycle? More times than I would like to admit.
As kids, we rarely stopped to think, "Should we be doing this?" We only asked, "What happens if we do?"
That curiosity is at the heart of this story. Each member of the gang brings something different to the adventure, and together they feel a lot like the groups of friends many of us remember from our own childhoods.
Sully is the voice of reason. He is cautious, practical, and usually the first one to point out when an idea sounds terrible. Of course, he still goes along anyway. Every friend group has someone like Sully. The funny thing is that these are often the bravest people because they understand the risks and choose to help anyway. Sully keeps everyone grounded, but he never lets fear stop him from standing beside his friends when it matters most.
Ollie is the builder. He sees problems as puzzles waiting to be solved. He is endlessly curious about how things work, whether they are machines, gadgets, or a hundred-year-old robot discovered in a sewer. I have known plenty of people who could not resist taking something apart just to understand it better. Ollie represents that restless creativity. He reminds me that imagination is not just about dreaming up ideas. Sometimes it is about having the confidence to grab a wrench and see what happens.
Then there is Ember.
As the narrator, Ember carries a little more of me than the others. He is curious, optimistic, and always looking for the next adventure. He is the one willing to take the first step into the unknown, even if he has no idea what waits on the other side. That optimism comes with its share of mistakes, but it also opens the door to discovery.
If Sully asks whether something is safe and Ollie asks how it works, Ember asks the question that starts the whole adventure.
"What if we tried?"
That simple question has shaped a lot of my own life.
It is what led me into the woods as a kid with my friends. It is what pushed me toward a career in design. It is what causes me to spend 2 hours replacing a bathtub faucet part when it should only take 30 mins. It is what convinced me to Kickstart a children’s book. And now it pushed me to write and illustrate my first middle grade novel after years of saying someday.
Looking back, I realize the best adventures were never really about the places we explored. They were about the people exploring them with us.
That is what I hope readers see in Ember, Ollie, and Sully.
Not just three kids who find a robot in a sewer, but three friends who remind us what it felt like to be young enough to believe that every summer could change your life.
Quick update about submissions: I received a few notes to submit the full manuscript! Looking forward to professional feedback from these agencies. I am pretty confident in this story but know there is more work to be done. Stay tuned and see you in a few Sundays.