Why these books exist
Ironwood Books is one person: me. I write these books for my son, and I publish them for any family that finds them useful.
I started the first one the day I found out he was coming. I kept circling the same question. What do I actually know that is worth passing on? And if something happened to me before I could say it in person, what would I want written down? Working through that question became The Ways of the World, a short guide for teenagers about power, money, human nature, and thinking for yourself.
The picture books came after. The Curious Kid series starts the same ideas at age four instead of fourteen. One idea per book, told as a story, because that is how kids actually remember things.
The name comes from ironwood, the hardest native wood in North America. Craftsmen used it for tool handles because it held up under years of hard use. That is the standard I try to hold the writing to. Ideas that hold up.
The ebooks are free and will stay free. If you want one on the shelf, the paperbacks are on Amazon. That is the whole model.
Evan Paliotta
What every book has to pass
One idea per book
Each book takes a single idea worth keeping and tells it as a story. If it needs a lecture, it isn't ready.
Old ideas only
If an idea hasn't held up for a few hundred years, it doesn't go in. Nothing trendy, nothing ideological.
The reader does the building
The books hand kids raw material and let them draw their own conclusions. They don't tell anyone what to think.