MANSFIELD — Educator and author Daniel Jones is preparing to release Oliver’s Time Travels: Don’t Touch Anything, the first book in a new middle-grade adventure series that brings ancient history to life while reimagining what a book can look and feel like for every kind of reader.
Ten-year-old Oliver has one rule while visiting an archaeological dig in Egypt with his dad: don’t touch anything. He breaks it.
Within moments, he’s pulled thousands of years into the past, dropped into a world of pharaohs, hidden chambers, and a dangerous mystery that someone clearly doesn’t want solved. Getting home means figuring out what he accidentally set in motion before it’s too late.
The book is designed to feel like Oliver’s personal field journal, complete with hand-drawn illustrations by Jones’s daughter, Gwyn. The spacing, pacing, and visual structure were intentionally crafted to support reluctant readers and students with dyslexia, without ever feeling remedial.
Jones knows that experience firsthand. “For years, I watched kids stare at the wall or blankly at the page in front of them,” he said. “I was that kid. The one who lost interest by the second paragraph.
Cluttered pages felt like a wall I had no business climbing. Not because I wasn’t smart. Because nobody built a book for the way my brain worked.”
That personal history drove more than two decades of classroom work watching capable, curious kids disengage from reading because the books they were handed didn’t make room for them. The story was inspired by his son Oliver’s love of archaeology and time travel, and illustrated by his daughter Gwyn, making it as much a family project as a professional one.
“Too many kids see reading as a battle instead of an adventure,” Jones said. “I wanted to create a book that felt fast, visual, mysterious, and fun, while also being thoughtfully designed for readers who may need more space, support, and momentum on the page.”
Early classroom feedback has been encouraging. A fourth-grade teacher who piloted the book with her class reported that students who typically struggle with reading felt confident and successful, and that the story’s cliffhangers kept them eager to continue.
Jones also shared the book with his seventh-grade students, including avid readers, who called it “full of adventure and extremely entertaining,” a reminder that accessibility and quality are not at odds.
“This book started as a passion project, but it became something bigger,” Jones said. “It was a chance to create something that could genuinely serve students, families, and teachers by
identifying a real need and creating with purpose.”
Oliver’s Time Travels: Don’t Touch Anything releases June 1, 2026 and will be available in paperback and hardcover on Amazon. It is the first book in a planned series, with Book 2 already in development.
For more information or review opportunities, contact Daniel Jones at flippedpbl@gmail.com.
About the Author
Daniel Jones is an educator, author, and former struggling reader from Mansfield with more than 20 years of classroom experience. He is the author of Modern PBL: Project-based Learning in the Digital Age and has spent his career making learning more accessible, engaging, and purposeful for all students. Oliver’s Time Travels is his first work of fiction.