Charles Curtis

Charles Curtis is a journalist and novelist who brought sports reporting, comic-book energy, and middle-grade adventure together in Strange Country Day. The story follows seventh-grader Alexander Graham Ptuiac, who develops unusual abilities during football tryouts at a new school. Alex must manage practices, classmates, and secrecy while discovering that another student also possesses extraordinary powers. Curtis has explained that the premise began with a family suggestion about fantastic creatures playing football, then grew into a broader story about fitting in and learning what makes someone different. Month9Books published the novel through its Tantrum Books line in 2015 to begin its Strange Things sequence. Before turning to fiction, Curtis worked across sports and entertainment journalism, experience that helps the game scenes retain recognizable detail even as robots, inventions, and speculative dangers enter the plot. Written for young readers around nine to twelve, the book balances team dynamics, friendship, suspense, and an origin mystery that points beyond its first installment. Its cliffhanger ending also leaves Alex’s family history and emerging abilities unresolved.