JOE PAUL
Joe Paul, over a river running through red autumn woods

Adventure novels for young adults about finding your own voice, developing integrity, empathy, belonging and independence.

The bookshelf

Books by Joe Paul

Cover of The Trouble with Troop 94Releases October 16, 2026The Trouble with Troop 94Troop 94 · Book One Cover of Ain't No Cure for the Summer Camp BluesReleases Spring 2027Ain't No Cure for the Summer Camp BluesTroop 94 · Book Two Cover of RookReleases Summer 2027RookA novel Cover of RumspringaReleases Winter 2027RumspringaA novel
Cover of The Trouble with Troop 94
The Trouble with Troop 94 series · Book One

The Trouble with Troop 94

A novel of Scouts, punk rock, and second chances

Releases October 16, 2026Young AdultFinding Your Own Voice

Seattle, 1999. Five boys who don't fit anywhere else land in the same Scout patrol: a bully in the making, a soccer star whose future ended with one dirty tackle, a Navy kid whose life is already planned for him, and a new kid from India who keeps being told to change. Between disastrous campouts, gatekeeping parents, a loss that changes everything, and a lot of loud music, they learn that belonging is something you fight for together.

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Cover of Ain't No Cure for the Summer Camp Blues
The Trouble with Troop 94 series · Book Two

Ain't No Cure for the Summer Camp Blues

More misadventures involving friendship, loyalty, and doing the right thing

Releases Spring 2027Young AdultFriendship, Bravery and Choosing to Help

The boys of the Magnificent 7 patrol are back, and a week at summer camp is supposed to be the time of your life. But rival troops, bad ideas after lights-out, and an overnight hike gone wrong send the boys on an adventure that tests their bravery and builds their character.

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Cover of Rook
From the author of the Troop 94 series

Rook

A novel

Releases Summer 2027Young AdultIntegrity and Survival

Detroit in 1976 is a tough place to grow up. The auto plants are shutting down, jobs are lost, families are broken. Rook, a 16-year-old chess prodigy, needs to learn how to navigate these tough times with no family support, a city that is crumbling, and a future that is burning away. Eventually, life on the streets makes him choose his next moves very carefully.

Cover of Rumspringa
From the author of the Troop 94 series

Rumspringa

Finding your own voice (in zero-G comedy)

Releases Winter 2027Young AdultScience fictionComedy

For the students living on Keplar-59, Spring Break means one thing: ROAD TRIP! And the best part is that Spring Break on Keplar-59 lasts six months! Five teenagers, one beat-up converted ambulance that can fly, and a whole galaxy they've never seen. On a road trip across the stars, a crew of teens discovers that figuring out who you are is a lot louder, stranger, and funnier than anyone warned them.

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Essays

From Joe's desk

Weekly writing on fatherhood, masculinity, and raising kids in a world that changes faster than any of us can keep up with.

Dad Bod Weekly logo: a coffee mug and alarm clock on a newspaper

Dad Bod Weekly

The digital soapbox of a middle-aged father of college-aged kids, who grew up analog and is watching his kids grow up digital.

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A Curriculum of Dissent logo: a raised hand

A Curriculum of Dissent

Classic and challenged books read against today's culture. Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Huxley, Jackson, and McCarthy, and what they can still teach our kids.

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Latest essays

About the author

Joe Paul

Joe Paul is the pen name of a longtime Scoutmaster, storyteller, and dad of college-aged kids in the San Francisco Bay Area. His fiction grows out of years spent around campfires and Scout meetings, where he learned that the kids who don't fit the mold are usually the ones worth writing about.

When he isn't writing about Troop 94, he writes Dad Bod Weekly and A Curriculum of Dissent, essays about what it means to raise good humans right now.

Big River Entertainment logo Publisher

Joe Paul's books are published by Big River Entertainment.

Contact

Get in touch

Readers, teachers, librarians, Scout leaders, podcasters, and press are all welcome. School and troop visits too.