Synopsis While on vacation in Yellowstone National Park, John, Millicent, and Miriam get trapped in the alternate world of Caldera, where they gain amazing powers and meet telepathic animals. Thrust into the middle of a war, they must defeat Lucifur, a fiendish, red grizzly bear, and solve the mystery of Caldera's past to find their way home.This is the first book in The Dark Matter Spectrum series. Intended for a general audience, you'll love this adventure if you enjoy franchises like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Dark Is Rising Sequence, and Power Pack from Marvel Comics. Yellowstone: The Bears of Caldera features stunning illustrations throughout, including a fantasy map of Yellowstone National Park / Caldera, chapter drawings, an illustrated glossary of place names, and Arthur’s French Phrasebook. BONUS FEATURE: Also includes The Yellowstone Sketchbook . Chad-Michael Simon shares the story behind the story, including many sketches from the development of the novel. This is a great gift idea for young readers. The age group is listed as nine (9) and up, but parents have said that their younger children have enjoyed it, too. This series does not fall into the Young Adult category, though other books of this genre may be classified this way. There are no coming-of-age relationships or sexual content in Yellowstone. This is a kids' adventure more similar to E.T. The Extraterrestrial and The Hobbit. ` Fans of the YouTube video "The Spider Who Couldn't Hide" may recognize a kindred spirit in the character of Arthur. He's a tarantula with a French accent, quirky sense of humor, and a heart of gold. While there are intense moments and depictions of animal warfare, everything happens with context. The young characters discuss the consequences of their actions and of what's happening around them. Themes of the book include: • The dangers of blindly protecting the status quo • Rising to the occasion in the face of adversity, especially with a handicap • Understanding what it means to be a great leader • The importance of home and family • Whether the sibling bond truly does stop at bears • Working together as a team • Understanding what it means to trust / learning how to trust others • Recognizing the strengths in others • The importance of critical thinking, especially in the face of radicalism Footnotes: Middle grade fantasy adventure books "Yellowstone childrens books" "Yellowstone Adventure" Yellowstone Caldera Awesome! It's even better than Harry Potter, and that means a lot coming from me!Adelaide, age 9Perrysburg, Ohio I've never read a book with such a gripping, adventurous plot. I craved reading more and more of this story. The characters are easy to get attached to and hard to forget. An absolute page turner, I couldn't put Yellowstone down. I let my sister borrow this book and she read it twice. The three children are incredibly relatable and well written; with witty dialogue and interesting character development. I love the use of animals and the real world environments. And the illustrations dotting various pages are insanely beautiful! Can't get enough of this story and I'm excited for more to come!Libbey JeablonCleveland, Ohio My ten-year-old son and I loved this book! The world created by Chad-Michael Simon was full of interesting characters and adventure. We enjoyed the journey into Caldera. My son says, "Everyone should read this book!" We hope there are more books and a movie someday!Andrea and Gavin PuhlToledo, Ohio Chad-Michael Simon created Yellowstone: The Bears of Caldera initially as an idea for a comic strip in 1995, and it evolved into a Middle Grade fantasy adventure novel. Chad illustrated and painted the cover for the book, as well as animated and edited the trailer for the book. He also performed most of the voices! Yellowstone is the first book in a planned series. He's drawn characters from Yellowstone have on napkins, the backs of placemats, and in the margins of calendars and worksheets for 24 years. In many ways, this debut novel has been his life's work. Some people believe everything happens for a reason,but too many bad things happen for that to be true.I believe we take what happens to us and give it meaning.That's what makes us powerful. Telepathic animals. Unreachable trees. A spider with a French accent. John, Millicent, and Miriam are trapped in Caldera. They started on vacation in Yellowstone National Park, but something magical has stolen them into an alternate dimension. A mind-controlling, red grizzly bear named Lucifur is hunting them, unscrupulous scientists are after them for who-knows-what, and the only way to get home is to solve a mystery that's gone unsolved for twenty thousand years. Piece of cake. To complicate matters , they find themselves in the middle of an all-out war between the animals. There's also a lot of running involved, and Millicent hates running. A grizzly bear named Sebastian arrives. The kids stare at