Cul-De-Sac Kids: Stronger Together
by A. L. Zeine
Middle Grade · Ages 8–12 · Military Families / Friendship / Resilience / Deployment
Chloe finally feels at home — until a sudden deployment turns everything upside down again. A moving story about staying strong when the world keeps changing.
Project Overview
Cul-De-Sac Kids: Stronger Together picks up Chloe’s story at what should be a moment of peace. She’s found her footing — a calmer routine, a close-knit group of friends, a neighborhood that finally feels like home. But being an Army brat means nothing stays settled for long. When a sudden deployment disrupts everything again, Chloe must manage big emotions, navigate long-distance friendships, and resist the pressure she puts on herself to hold it all together for everyone else. A. L. Zeine writes about military family life with specificity and compassion, never simplifying the emotional reality of children who grow up with deployment as a constant background presence.
The illustration challenge was capturing Chloe’s internal world across a story where much of the drama is emotional rather than external — expression, posture, and environmental detail carried the weight that action sequences carry in other books.
Role
Amanda came with an established series and a character readers already knew — Chloe had history, relationships, and an emotional arc that needed to feel continuous with the previous book. My role was to step back into that world and extend it faithfully, while pushing the emotional register further. This is a middle-grade story where the drama lives mostly inside Chloe’s head, so expression, posture, and the quiet details of a scene had to carry what action sequences carry in other books.
From character consistency across Chloe and the returning cast through to print-ready files, I worked across the chapter illustrations, making sure each felt like it belonged in the same world as the first book — and moved that world forward.
Selected Chapter Illustrations
Book Details
ISBN-13
978-1737841258
Publisher
AL Zeine Books, LLC
Publish Date
September 17, 2025
Reading Age
8 – 12 years
Page Count
112 pages
Format
5″ x 8″ Paperback
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