WelcomE!

Joan is an award-winning author and attorney from Youngstown, Ohio.

When Covid cut Joan's senior year of college short, Joan thought she'd give writing children's books a chance. Six years later, and Joan has two novels published with Simon & Schuster's Aladdin imprint: Dad Rock Dragon Quest (2025) and The Grimsbane Family Witch Hunters (2024).

If you or a child you know loves children's books full of magic, family, friendship, and adventure, you're in the right spot!

Joan's books: Available wherever books are sold

Dad Rock Dragon Quest
how to train your dragon with the trappings of an 80's action movie: classic rock, hand-to-hand combat, car chases, and explosions!

A girl’s awkward road trip with her dad and her mom’s new boyfriend turns into to an epic quest to rescue a dragon from poachers in this “fast-paced, exuberant, and genuine adventure” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) perfect for fans of Fablehaven and Wilderlore.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Starred Review from Publisher's Weekly
School Library Journal Best Books of 2025
New York Public Library Best Books of 2025

Aspiring rockstar Zadie Drake’s world flipped upside-down the moment her mom started dating Lloyd Clutterbuck—a boring risk analyst with an aversion to all things fun. Since Lloyd moved in, he’s made it his mission to drain every drop of joy from Zadie’s life—putting strict limits on her guitar sessions, nitpicking her every move, and filling the house with his utter dullness. Naturally, when Zadie’s daredevil park ranger dad invites Zadie and her older sister to spend the summer at his cabin, Zadie can hardly contain her excitement. But Zadie’s joy is short-lived when her mom announces that Lloyd will be tagging along.

Soon after arriving at the cabin, Zadie begins to suspect that there’s more to her dad’s job than meets the eye. Her suspicions are confirmed when family secrets make an explosive entrance in the form of a fire-wielding poacher who kidnaps her dad’s best friend—an enormous, ice-breathing dragon. The revelations launch Zadie and her family into a cross-country rescue mission of epic proportions. As tensions spike, tempers flare, and the family’s differences become glaringly obvious, Zadie realizes her family’s most daunting challenge might not be rescuing the dragon but working together.

The Grimsbane family witch hunters
KPOP Demon hunters in the midwest, but with cryptids instead of demons

Netflix’s Wednesday meets Jodi Lynn Anderson’s The Memory Thief in this “spooky, fast-paced” (Kirkus Reviews) middle grade adventure about a girl’s quest to save her cursed brother that takes her through perilous, monster-filled woods.
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A Barnes and Noble preorder bestseller.
An Amazon bestseller.

The Grimsbane women have been hunting witches and monsters for generations—ever since the Watcher, the most powerful witch in the Midwest, cursed the Grimsbane men to die untimely and unusual deaths. Part-time skater, full-time troublemaker Anna Grimsbane may be only twelve, but she’s been learning about hunting her whole life and is tired of waiting to do the real thing. She and her twin brother Billy are about to turn thirteen, the age the curse takes hold, and Anna wants to be on the front lines fighting to break it.

Only hours before he’ll become an accident-prone walking disaster, Billy runs away to find the Watcher himself. The Grimsbane women are all out on patrol, leaving it up to Anna and her friends Suvi and Rosario to find Billy before his recklessness hastens his demise. But the woods are crawling with cryptids, most of whom hate humans, and all of whom hate the Grimsbanes. And the deeper Anna gets into the forest, the clearer it is that reading about witch hunting is no replacement for practical experience.

Anna feels in over her head, especially as she starts to suspect she knows much less about her family history than she’d thought. As she races against the clock to find Billy before midnight, it becomes all too evident that he isn’t the only Grimsbane at risk for a grisly death tonight.