Jonathan Ross Notis wrote this story with his mother when he was a fourteen-year-old, high school freshman, stuck in his house for a year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. During lockdown, this avid sports fan and die-hard camper decided that he could re-write his mother’s third grade essay and make it a more entertaining story. Jonathan’s re-write included four boys who were shipwrecked on Fudgepop Island, and his story became the basis for a final version that he wrote with his mother. Jonathan is a rising junior at Horace Greeley High School who tutors and is involved in various other activities, including the Spiral Giving Foundation. In his free time, Jonathan likes to hang out with his three brothers, play tennis, go to sleep away camp, learn coding languages, cook, play video games, and watch baseball and football. 

Deborah Raider Notis has been writing for newspapers, magazines, and blogs since the early 1990’s on topics ranging from home golf courses and online dating to Rhodes Scholars and college campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Deborah also regularly contributes to a blog for her educational consulting company, GAMECHANGER Tutoring Connection. The informative, entertaining GAMECHANGERNOW.COM blog has articles about family life, education, and navigating academia.

Before Deborah launched GAMECHANGER Tutoring Connection, she prosecuted criminal misdemeanors, managed a publishing company’s copyright department, worked as a marketing manager at a financial institution, and ran her own marketing consulting firm. Additionally, Deborah has kept her own writing journal since high school, jotting down thoughts, collecting quotes and articles, and writing her own short essays, poems, and stories. In 2017, she moved her thoughts, essays, and short stories online, creating her blog, The Purge Chick https://thepurgechick.wordpress.com/. The Purge Chick is a collection of essays on family, friendship, and funny, heartfelt perspectives on life. 

Deborah is a born and bred New Yorker, who has lived in Poughkeepsie, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. She currently lives in Westchester County with her husband, James, her four boys, ranging in age from 23 to 16.