“Augie and the Green Knight” Children’s Book Raises $103k on Kickstarter

Using crowdfunding for his new children’s adventure book “Augie and the Green Knight” author Zachary Weiner launched a campaign on Kickstarter to raise $30k. With four weeks left, the project not only surpassed its initial goal, but has currently raised $113,417 from 2,844 backers.

According the campaign’s website, “Augie and the Green Knight” is about a scientifically precocious young girl in a world of fantasy.  The book is close to 20,000 words long, and is a retelling of the famous medieval romance “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” The original story is about King Arthus’s court encountering a strange giant Green Knight and the quest that follows.

In “Augie and the Green Knight,” readers get to see the Green Knight’s side of the story through the lens of a young girl named Augie. The girl is an expert in biology, math and other subjects that other children and adults find uninteresting. She sets out on an adventure one morning and finds herself in a strange world of fantasy. She later uses her intelligence to save the Green Knight from death.

Sharing what really inspired the book, Mr. Weiner wrote, “My wife and I recently had a baby girl, and I had a sad thought: Although things are changing, there are still very few adventure books with female leads. There are books with little girls who are smart, sure, but there are practically no books about little girls who are smart, and scientific, and (here’s the crucial thing) risk-taking.

“’Augie and the Green Knight’ is an attempt to give her that book. It’s the story of a little girl who enjoys math and science and history, but who also gets up to trouble, speaks her mind, and is unapologetically strong.

“My intellectual guide for this book was T.H. White. This is a book that should be read to a child, because there are parts that may be hard to understand, both intellectually and emotionally. But, I wanted a book that was written to be enjoyed when young, but which had enough richness that you could come back later in life and still learn from it. It is a book aimed at children but not blunted for them.”

The “Augie and The Green Knight” campaign is slated to close July 2nd.

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