Facing the Beast Within: The Anxiety of Cameron Poole (The Order of the Stones Book 1) by Mark Cheverton

This book deals with anxiety in kids. The ideal target on social media is moms of kids with anxiety! I wrote the book with a team of child psychologists and integrated their anxiety-coping strategies throughout the book. This book can help kids who are struggling with anxiety while at the same time delivering an exciting, action-packed fantasy adventure. Fans of Percy Jackson and Harry Potter will love this book. Facing the Beast Within: The Anxiety of Cameron Poole Synopsis The story starts with our protagonist, CAMERON POOLE, at Camp Pontchartrain for the summer. He suffers from anxiety which is on full display in the dining hall when he imagines the many bullies focusing their ire on him. We hear Cameron mention the buzzing in his ears, which signals his anxiety is getting worse. The thing he most fears is when his anxiety takes over his mind, his Beast (anxiety) seizing control of his brain. With Cameron, we meet BOBBY, an old friend who fears nothing and accepts the world with a smile and a hug, Cameron’s opposite. A bullying incident between Cameron and the soccer team (his Beast on full display) occurs, and we meet LENARD O’MALLEY. Lenard saves Cameron from the soccer players’ wrath, and they head together to the lake to do the ropes course, a source of massive anxiety for our hero. Cameron’s Beast makes it impossible for him to climb the ropes, and he fails again. After the ropes course, an angry Lenard and furious KARL MACARTHUR confronts Cameron, Bobby, and ELISA JARREAU. The camp director, MRS. CHAKOTÉ, intercedes and sentences the five kids to the punishment of helping the groundskeeper. While pulling weeds, they see the imp again and a gremlin. Running from the monsters, the kids re-encounter Mrs. Chakoté. In the Director’s office, they learn about the Order of the Stones and the parallel world of Agartha. Chakoté charges the kids to find and protect the seven Skull Keys hidden in the tunnels under the Crypt. If the monsters find the seven skulls, they will open a doorway to Agartha and allow monsters to invade New Orleans and burn it to the ground as they did back in 1788. The kids gather what they can for weapons and enter the hidden tunnels under the Crypt in a Goonies-like adventure. The kids search the catacombs while avoiding clever traps and furious monsters, but the Agarthans grossly outnumber them. Just before the moon sets, the monsters return to Agartha with two skull keys, leaving behind a wounded imp named RYLEE. The kids befriend the imp and learn that the antagonist, the Demon Lord of Agartha, MALPHAS, wants to invade and enslave everyone on Earth with his demon-magic. Our heroes return to the catacombs and search for the strongest of the skull keys, the Skull of Fear. They find the skull but cannot withstand Malphas’s magic. The Demon Lord takes the Skull of Fear, the last skull key, and traps the kids underground. Terrified, the company is ready to give up, but Cameron, familiar with the taste of fear, shows them how they can escape. They free themselves from the cavern and make it back to Camp Pontchartrain. With the students gathered in the gym, Cameron tells them about Malphas and the skull keys. When they reveal Rylee, the other kids are all terrified. Cameron delivers an emotional monologue and reveals his anxiety and his battles with fear. He convinces everyone to stand against the monsters of Agartha. In a battle worthy of Tom Clancy, the kids confront the monsters, but instead of being a collection of teams, clubs, and cliques, they are one group, unified by Cameron’s brimming confidence. During the battle, it seems all is lost, forcing Cameron to confront his Beast and battle Malphas directly. In the end, Malphas’s magical enslavement of the monsters of Agartha fails, and they all retreat through the gateway, leaving the Demon Lord of Agartha, Malphas, to be destroyed. At the end, Cameron heads back to the ropes course and confronts his fear by climbing to the top, laughing. Cameron displays common anxiety symptoms throughout the story and tries to exercise various coping strategies. These coping strategies come not only from what we tried with our son, but also from a group of psychologists who read the book and suggested strategies I had not included. After reading the finished manuscript, many of the psychologists indicated they would use this book with their patients to reinforce their teachings. In addition, the novel offers opportunities to discuss how Cameron handles his anxiety poorly in the first half of the story but successfully copes with his Beast in the second half.