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J. W. Zarek is a 2025 Moonbeam Children's Book Award Bronze Medal Winner, Wall Street Journal bestselling author, and the writer behind one of urban fantasy's most awarded debut novels. His debut novel The Devil Pulls the Strings earned 41 awards including the Chanticleer International Book Awards Overall Best Book of 2021, the same organization that called his Bella Brown Series "one of the best series they have reviewed to date."
His mission is simple yet powerful: to write stories that inspire readers of every age, spark their imagination, and feed their souls by showing them they can handle life's big feelings and challenges when someone believes in them.
Every children's book begins with the same dedication to the reader: "Look in the mirror and think and say aloud 'I am enough.'" Too many children never hear this essential message, but for the child who needs to read, see, and say these words, this helps make the world a better place, one reader at a time.
His adult fiction carries the same conviction at its core. The Devil Pulls the Strings is a five-act urban fantasy rooted in authentic Slavic mythology inherited from oral tradition, a labor of love ten years in the writing with two and a half years of research completed before the first word was set down. The second edition exists because readers, producers, and studio executives asked for more, and Zarek delivered it.
Following a life-threatening hospital stay in Summer 2024, Zarek created an extraordinary 12-book children's collection in just 11 months (August 2024 through July 2025), addressing America's literacy crisis through emotionally intelligent storytelling: 10 Bella Brown books featuring everyday adventures with seamless educational integration, The Stomp-Clomp-Clump Monster Above the Bed, a revolutionary story showing monsters afraid of children, and Pip's Epic Treasure Hunt, the first children's story to expand Slavic domovoi folklore with original mythology.
With seven number one bestsellers across his published works and four picture books launched between September and October 2025 that sold over 2,300 copies in less than one month across eight countries, his work demonstrates both exceptional quality and proven market appeal. All four published picture books have earned Literary Titan Gold Book Awards.
Currently serving as a Federal Senior Adjudicator and court-qualified expert witness, Zarek brings analytical precision to his creative work. His global adventures fuel his authentic storytelling perspectives: teaching English Conversation in Japan, climbing Mount Fuji, getting kicked off Mount Rainier, hunting pirates in the Persian Gulf, navigating the Suez Canal, and successfully completing the Walt Disney World Marathon as a woman. The Walt Disney World website shows he successfully completed the marathon as a 44-year-old woman. That made him laugh so he never asked that it be changed. After the race, he called his mom to congratulate her daughter on completing the marathon, and asked what other secrets she had been keeping from him.
Beyond storytelling, Zarek has created 48 professional lesson plans (24 comprehensive and 24 topic-focused, spanning Pre-K through 4th grade) for four of his published children's books, with the lesson plans available free to educators via his website, making reading joyful while building children's confidence and self-worth.
Beginning in 2027, he will transition to full-time educational advocacy, launching school visits to directly combat America's literacy crisis while ensuring every child hears the "I am enough" message.
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