In “Britfield & the Lost Crown,” the first release of the Britfield series, protagonist Tom and his 55 fellow castaway children live at an orphanage in Yorkshire, England, where they are held captive. At the Weatherly orphanage, children live by harsh, standardized rules and even the slightest deviation is punished. They are known and called out by their number, not their name. The rulers of this corrupt system drive the children to relentlessly perform duties in their outworn factory, making them rich, while there is little-to-no food or decent clothing for their charges.

Twelve-year-old Tom and the other orphans have become a family and they look out for each other. They have courageously devised workarounds to help survive the brutal environment and their evil minders. There is little joy or imagination inside their walls.

The only way to access the outside world is a high-risk dash to the rooftop for a wonderous view of the beautiful English countryside. And the orphan’s only possibility for personal enlightenment and entertainment is to read books, yet they have none. So, they create a clever system to “borrow” books from the owner’s home library, a task that requires a successful escape from one building to another and back again—enduring monumental risk and a vicious canine.

Tom is caught on one of his book-borrowing missions, and during an interrogation he is inadvertently told his parents are still alive. A series of events that follows this shocking news leads Tom, and his best friend at the orphanage Sarah, to face the moment of truth—that they must escape and search to find them.

Thus begins the fast-paced, adventurous, and action-packed Britfield series that engages readers with real world iconic monuments, historic places, mystery and intrigue, bad people, and the unexpected kindness of strangers who support them along the way.

Uplifting Children’s Literature

One of the surprises of “Britfield & the Lost Crown” is that while the orphanage conjures up a mid-1800s Charles Dickens era, the story of Tom and Sarah is set in modern times. Author C. R. (Chad) Stewart is a fan of Dickens’ works and was heavily influenced by him and several other British novelists. Influences not found in Britfield are today’s trending storylines that feature dark and post-apocalyptic worlds, sorcery and spells, witchcraft, the occult, and the illicit or other topics found in stories such as “The Hunger Games,” where children kill each other to earn food or for entertainment in their dystopian world.

“There is an 80% gap worldwide in the market for family-focused, clean, fun, and adventurous educational stories,” Stewart said. “There’s little-to-no competition for us. You cannot produce enough quality content right now for this market. Think of the Hardy Boys series that was first published in 1927. Or Nancy Drew. Go to the Young Adult section at Barnes & Noble and see what’s there. It’s mostly witchcraft, superheroes, occultism, and fantasy,” he said. Additionally, Stewart has researched and documented that children’s greatest thought influences today are 86% from media, 12% through school, and a marginal 2% at home, from family. He further documents the shocking statistics of what a child sees in media daily—excessively repeated amounts of explicit, violent, and other negative material.

Stewart wanted his characters to be relatable to middle-school readers, and for them to solve their problems using common sense and good judgment while placed in actual settings, such as London in “Britfield & the Lost Crown.” There is no hidden agenda, offensive content, or undermining principles in his books.

Britfield is often classified in the adventure fiction genre, and Stewart has realized the massive global potential for his work and the ability to fill the gap. His young readers tell him—face to face during school tours—that his one-of-a-kind book doesn’t remind them of anything else they’ve ever read. And they are right. The unique combination of adventure, history, geography, creativity, great characters, and masterful, layered storytelling is Stewart’s brand. As a professionally trained screenwriter, Stewart is often complimented on the fast, action-filled pace of his writing style, one that some say reads like the flowing scenes in a movie. Soon, fans can look forward to Britfield movies, based on the books, that are in development now.