About the Book

Book: Logan vs. the Pouty Paw Paw Author: Allen Brokken Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy Logan has a lip so pouty his Pa is sure a bird is going to poop on it. Shoveling coal as a furnace feeder at the foundry is hot, sweaty work, but Logan is determined to pay off his debt for a broken spyglass—even if his lower lip sticks out the whole time. But when a “Pouty Paw Paw” tree begins growing in the soot of the foundry’s smokestack, the town of Blooming Glen starts catching a bad case of the “pouts”. When Gran’s legendary joyful jam is stolen and replaced with a “darkness jam” that makes everyone hateful, Logan must trade his gloom for the fruit of joy. With his pet raccoon Rascal by his side, Logan is about to prove that a joyful heart is the best weapon against a stinky, pouting plot!

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About the Author

Allen Brokken is a teacher at heart, a husband and father most of all. He’s a joyful writer by the abundant grace of God. He began writing the Towers of Light series for his own children to help him illustrate the deep truths of the Bible in an engaging and age-appropriate way. He’s dedicated 15 years of his life to volunteer roles in children’s ministry and youth development. Now that his own children are off to college he’s telling stories and sharing clean humor on social media.

More from Allen

“Logan vs. the Pouty Paw Paw” is a special book in the series “Logan’s search for the Fruits of the Spirit” because it was written with the support of my stepdad, John Beghtol. In the spring of 2025, we were working through the death of my Mom from a long battle with cancer. He found out my kids were running a Kickstarter for one of my picture books, Meow Meow Milks the Cow, and decided to support it. As a supporter, he earned the option to share some creative direction on one of my upcoming projects. Over the summer of 2025, I was doing some research for my next Logan book, looking for a native Midwestern fruit that would be good for representing sadness, to contrast with the spiritual fruit of joy. I learned that Paw Paws were a rare native fruit that would have been used to make jam in the 1860’s. So, they seemed like a good fit, especially if they were Pouty Paw Paws. It also kind of fit what was going on with us, both of us were sad at the loss of my mom, and many people use the name Paw Paw as another name for a Grandfather. So, it spawned the idea that Gramps from the Towers of Light series could be a key character in this adventure. I shared an early flight plan for the story with him, and he liked it in principle, but then provided an idea around a mysterious stranger entering the town. I like the idea, but I felt a little stuck because this story takes place after the Towers of Light series, where all the bad guys had been defeated, so who was this mysterious stranger? Eventually, I just wrote a mini story about the stranger to place him in the city, and I was off with a solid story to tell. The story ended up being a good cross-section of dealing with sadness of different forms, from being upset over chores that feel to hard, to the loss of a loved one. At the same time, I kept the fun and hijinks that only a boy and his pet raccoon can get into. I hope your child enjoys it as much as I did while writing it with my Bonus Dad.

Interview with the Author

If a reader were to ask you what author you are like, what would you answer?

That’s a tricky one. For Logan’s series, I was playing around with a combination of Mark Twain (Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn) and R.L. Stein (Goosebumps). The similarity to Mark Twain is the frontier boy hijinks. With R.L. Stein, I took his master class and learned a lot about story structure for this type of book.

If you could travel back in time, what time period would you go to?

I think possibly the late 1950’s early 1960’s. It would be interesting to be at the dawning of the Atomic age where they thought the future would be limitless nuclear energy, flying cars and jet packs.

What is your favorite book and why?

The book I’ve read the most is Battlefield Earth by L Ron Hubbard. It was a hardback that was listed at $25.00 in 1984 and I bought it at the library book sale for a dollar! I was 12 At the time it was so big, 800 pages, that I couldn’t quite remember the beginning by the time I got to the end. So I read it 6 times in 6^th grade and won a reading prize from my teacher.

Share with me a few of your favorite things.

I love cats. We have an orage tabby Fitz that I have a love/feed me human relationship that just makes me smile. I really enjoy hazelnut coffee with heavy whipping cream. But these days the doctor says I have to do decaf. Finally, my favorite mobile game is Star Realms. In 2024 I was the global leader board champion in the arena and have gotten top 8 twice in their quarterly championships. That said, I’ve taken a step back from games and am spending my free time reading.

What is one question you would like readers to ask you? What would be your answer?

Q: Mr. Brokken, is this light you are always talking about real?

A: Yes, Jesus Christ is the light of the world. If you believe in him, and repent, your sins will be forgiven and you will know everlasting peace and life with him in heaven.