What happens when an ordinary 12-year-old walks into a school filled with lock-pickers, hackers, getaway drivers, and criminal prodigies? That playful question drives Heist Jr. High: The Waywards, the debut middle-grade novel from author Matt Jordan-Pummell.
Arriving October 1, the book launches the Heist Jr. High series with an unusual boarding school, a mismatched crew, and a young hero trying to discover what he can bring to a team where everyone seems extraordinarily talented.
Welcome to Horizon Junior High
Oliver Winters has spent most of his childhood traveling around the world with his documentary-filmmaker parents. Homeschooled from one location to another, he’s experienced places many children could only imagine visiting. One experience has largely escaped him: spending meaningful time around kids his own age.
That changes when his parents prepare to film at an active volcano site and enroll him at Horizon Junior High, a boarding school in New York.
Oliver soon discovers that Horizon is far from an ordinary prep school. Behind its doors lies a high-security training ground designed for young criminals and geniuses. Students learn the skills required to become master criminals and eventually execute elaborate heists.
There’s one immediate problem. Oliver has no criminal skills.
He’s never picked a lock, cracked a safe, hacked a computer, or hotwired a car. He’s also inexperienced at making friends. With the school’s demanding eliminations threatening his place at Horizon, Oliver needs allies quickly.
His answer is The Waywards.
Meet the Unlikely Crew Behind The Waywards
The crew Oliver assembles gives The Waywards much of its personality. Each member arrives with a specialized talent, along with distinctive qualities that make the group feel wonderfully unconventional.
Jaden, Oliver’s roommate, is a master lock-picker. He’s deaf, and Oliver’s ability to communicate in American Sign Language gives the two boys an immediate way to connect.
Lilly supplies the technological expertise. Her parents are regarded as evil geniuses, and she has inherited their remarkable intelligence. Sonja is the crew’s master of disguise, although her specialty comes with an amusing twist: she disguises herself as inanimate objects. When she’s out of disguise, she talks at remarkable speed.
Then there’s Mo, the team’s getaway driver and gifted mechanic. His credentials contain one rather significant complication. He’s never actually driven a car.
Together, Jaden, Lilly, Sonja, Mo, and Oliver become The Waywards. Their collection of abilities appears perfect for a heist crew, except Oliver still has to answer the question hanging over his new life. What does a completely normal kid contribute when surrounded by people with extraordinary skills?
That question gives the story an engaging emotional foundation alongside its criminal-school premise.
A Middle-Grade Adventure Built to Keep Pages Turning
The Waywards is Matt’s first middle-grade novel and the debut installment in the Heist Jr. High series. He approaches the category with a personal motivation rooted in his own childhood reading experience.
Middle grade was the period when Matt stopped reading regularly, before rediscovering books in late high school. Through Heist Jr. High, he hopes to help young readers get past that same hurdle by creating stories that encourage them to keep turning pages.
The setup offers plenty to work with. There are secret lessons, school eliminations, unusual friendships, specialized criminal skills, and the promise of grand heists. Oliver’s lack of obvious expertise also makes him an accessible central character. He enters Horizon as a newcomer who has to learn the rules, understand his classmates, and determine where he belongs.
About Author Matt Jordan-Pummell
Originally from New York, Matt now lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife Cam and their children, Reed and Elliot. Their household also includes Moose the dog and two cats, Bennie and Jet.
Matt works in Sales Operations at On-Running and is also Co-founder of the Desklands. A self-described geek who enjoys deep conversations about niche interests and creative pursuits, he has spent the past eight years writing comic books. Heist Jr. High: The Waywards marks his first venture into middle-grade fiction and his debut novel.
Readers who pre-order Heist Jr. High can email a photograph of their receipt and their mailing address to thedesklands@gmail.com to receive a signed thank-you card from Matt.
A New Crew Is Ready for Its First Mission
With a secret criminal academy, an eccentric group of talented students, and an ordinary boy searching for his own strength, Heist Jr. High: The Waywards has the ingredients for a fast-moving middle-grade adventure.
When the debut arrives October 1, readers can meet The Waywards and discover whether Oliver has exactly what this unusual crew needs.