About the author

Bob Jonas

Bob Jonas was a school librarian for 24 years-four in Beaverton, Oregon and seven in China -- Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong. In South America he worked for three years in Santiago, Chile, three years in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Germany was next, and after three years, home again for four more, then off to Norway for a final two years overseas. After retiring from his last post in Norway, on July 1, 2019, he continued to write, visit schools, present at conferences, and use what he knows—which is a lot—to get kids excited about books, reading, and writing.<br>His travel and writing obsessions began after reading Thor Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki-he was ten. His storytelling obsession began with his dad--the greatest tale teller, BS artiste, mesmerizer, and raconteur the younger Jonas would ever lean on for inspiration.<br>His first fifteen years of adulthood found him living the travel adventure in a semi-truck where he logged over a million miles in twelve western states. Unfortunately, the road stint lasted about eleven years too long. After too many speeding tickets, too many run-ins with angry weigh masters, bad, bad, and double bad winter weather, not to mention a real bad back, he knew it was time to find his old college degree and get himself somewhere else.<br>As a storyteller, writer, and librarian he has motivated, inspired, stimulated, stirred, cajoled, provoked, and done what was necessary to instill a love of reading in kids on fours continents.<br>ChinAlive, published in 2013, was his first YA novel. Imposter, a second YA novel, was published in 2015, followed by a sequel, Death Brew, was released March 26, 2017. Jump, a memoir of all his years on the road was published in 2023, and Ben's Story, his newest YA novel, was published in 2024. GoodGollyMollyMe--Stories of Love and Hope, a compilation of 50 stories from his Substack newsletter, GoodGollyMollyMe, was also published in 2024.Add an Author Biography