Everything readers ask us
Reading order, age range, the real places, the culture, the pen name — all in one place.
What is The Everhart Family Adventures series?+
The Everhart Family Adventures is a middle-grade adventure mystery series by Jeremy Tinder for readers ages 10–13. It follows the Everharts — a real Filipino-American family of four — as they travel across the Philippines uncovering pre-colonial heritage, solving mysteries rooted in babaylan history, and reassembling a golden salakot hidden for four hundred years. The five-book series visits Boracay, Palawan, Intramuros (Manila), Batanes, and Cebu.
What order should I read the Everhart books in?+
Read them in publication order: Book 1 — The Whispering Shores of Boracay, Book 2 — The Forgotten Temple of Palawan, Book 3 — The Shadow of Intramuros, Book 4 — The Storm Keeper of Batanes, and Book 5 — The Ancestor Voices of Cebu. Each adventure stands on its own, but the golden salakot mystery builds across all five books to the series finale in Cebu.
What age are these books for?+
The series is written for ages 10–13 (grades 4–8). Each book is a fast-paced chapter book of roughly 18,000–22,000 words with 17 chapters, and Books 4–5 include a “Difficult Words” vocabulary list at the end of every chapter — which also makes them a great fit for classroom reading and read-alouds with slightly younger children.
Are these good books about Philippine culture for kids?+
Yes — Filipino culture and history are the heart of the series. Readers meet the babaylan tradition, the ancient baybayin script, the salakot, Ivatan stone houses and laji chants of Batanes, the Sinulog Festival of Cebu, and real places like the UNESCO-listed Puerto Princesa Underground River and Fort Santiago in Intramuros. The family’s mother, Celyn, is Filipina, and the entire series is a celebration of her heritage.
Are the places in the books real?+
Every setting is real: Boracay’s White Beach and forest hills, the Puerto Princesa Underground River in Palawan (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Fort Santiago in the walled city of Intramuros in Manila, the Ivatan villages of Batanes, and Cebu with its Sinulog Festival and the heritage town of Carcar. The hidden temples, vaults, and golden artifacts are fiction — but the history and culture around them are carefully grounded in fact.
Who is Jeremy Tinder?+
Jeremy Tinder is the pen name of a father who writes adventure stories starring his own family. The name honors his late brother Jeremy, who passed away at 33 — so that Uncle Jeremy could still be part of the girls’ story. The series was inspired by the family’s real trips to the Philippines, the real heritage of the author’s Filipina wife, and two daughters who proved that the best explorers always bring snacks.
Do the books have Christian content?+
The Everhart family’s faith is part of who they are — grace before meals, a quiet prayer before a hard moment, a father who reads his Bible in the early morning. It is woven in naturally as character, never preached. Families looking for wholesome adventure fiction with Christian values will feel at home; readers who just want a great mystery will never feel lectured.
What is a babaylan?+
In pre-colonial Philippine society, the babaylan were spiritual leaders, healers, and keepers of knowledge — most often women. They held communities together as historians, herbalists, and mediators. When Spanish colonization suppressed the tradition, much of that knowledge went underground. The series’ central mystery imagines one babaylan community hiding its greatest treasure so a future generation could find it.
What is a salakot? What is baybayin?+
A salakot is the traditional wide-brimmed Filipino hat, and in the series a legendary one — beaten from gold and split into four hidden pieces — drives the whole mystery. Baybayin is the ancient pre-colonial Philippine script; the inscriptions on the salakot and the personal artifacts are written in it, and Celyn and the girls learn to read it across the books.
Where can I buy the Everhart Family Adventures books?+
All books are available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback editions (paperback $12.99, eBook $4.99, free with Kindle Unlimited). Visit the series page on Amazon to see every available book, or start with Book 1, The Whispering Shores of Boracay.
Are the books suitable for reluctant readers?+
Yes. Chapters are short and cliffhanger-paced, the family banter is funny, and the mystery pulls readers forward. Books 4 and 5 add a Difficult Words list at the end of each chapter, so vocabulary never becomes a wall. Many families also read them aloud — each book is sized for a couple of weeks of bedtime chapters.
Will there be more Everhart adventures?+
The golden salakot arc is complete in five books — the series finale, The Ancestor Voices of Cebu, closes every thread. The author’s other series, The Tinder Family’s American Adventure, continues at jeremytinderbooks.com. Follow the Amazon author page for anything new.