A 12-book read-aloud adventure for families. Read aloud from age 4, read alone from age 7. Books 1–6 out now.
Sometimes the water glows. And when it does, it opens like a door.
Join Timmy Calloway, the crew of the Morningstar, and one extremely light-fingered monkey on twelve voyages across the Saltworld: glowing tides, impossible storms, sea serpents, pirates, and a sealed bottle that is always warm. Adventure on every page, and something truer beneath the waves.
It starts with a boy, a beach, and the day the water began to glow.
Timmy has very important opinions about sand. Then one Saturday the sea at the edge of his toes begins to glow, soft and old and alive, and pulls him through into another world entirely.
On the other side: a ship called the Morningstar. A captain with a very large hat who claims the entire ocean. A cook who only speaks in questions. A boy named Pip who has been waiting for a friend. And a small sealed bottle, always warm, that bumps against Timmy’s hand in the water… as if it chose him.
Twelve voyages. Pirates, a sea serpent, and storms that shouldn’t be possible. An island that forgot its own name. A monkey who steals exactly the right things. And a Name inside the bottle, older than the sea itself, waiting to go home.
The Name in the bottle is the heart of all twelve books. This is a Christian series, and that is what it has been quietly saying the whole time: that your child was named on purpose, loved long before they arrived, and never lost to the One who made them.
The Bottle
Sealed before the sea began. Always, always warm.
The Key
Cold, patient, and made for exactly one lock at a time.
The Compass
Does not point north. Points at the only thing worth pointing at.
The Voyages
A Christian pirate fantasy for families who read together, in the spirit of Narnia and the Wingfeather Saga. Twelve books, one continuous story, told at the pace a child grows. Recommended read aloud from age 4, read alone from age 7. The early voyages are gentle bedtime adventures, and the later ones sail deeper water.
Books 1–6 are out now in paperback and Kindle, and free to read with kindleunlimited. Start with Book 1 tonight.
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The Saltworld Map
A beautifully illustrated map of the whole Saltworld — Maren’s Landing, the Thornway, the gold water, and the island at the center of everything. Print it. Pin it. Plot your voyage.
An Exclusive Pip Story
Pip’s First Day on the Morningstar — a short story you can’t get anywhere else, about a stowaway, a biscuit barrel, and the day the youngest deckhand found a home. A perfect bedtime read tonight.
Be First to Every Launch
Join the crew and be the first to know when a brand-new voyage is ready to begin. You’ll also receive behind-the-scenes artwork, sneak peeks from the captain’s log, and fun crew stories from the world behind the books.
Join the Crew of the Morningstar
The rope ladder is already down. Sign on and the Saltworld Map and Pip’s story sail straight to your inbox.
Meet the Crew of the Morningstar
T
Timmy
Five years old. Says hello to most things. Carries a bottle that is always, always warm.
P
Pip
The youngest deckhand. Throws the rope ladder down before you even reach the ship.
J
Captain Jack Flint
Owns a very large hat, a suspicious compass, and (he insists) the entire ocean.
W
Willem Thorne
The first mate. Reads the sea like a book and old books like the sea. Says little. Means all of it.
B
Barnaby
The cook. Only speaks in questions. Shouldn’t everyone eat before the adventure starts?
O
Old Crane
Fifty years at sea. Says almost nothing. Is always, somehow, exactly where he needs to be.
G
Gordy
The chronicler. Writes everything down, even mid-storm. Someone has to remember it.
K
The Monkey
(Keeper) Steals buttons, spoons, and one very important key. It is not the captain’s monkey. (It is.)
Friends & Foes of the Saltworld
S
Sophia
Timmy’s little sister. Keeps the count. Moves the pebbles. Understands more than she can say.
J
Julia
Timmy’s mother. Keeper of a very old journal. The Tideline waits for her.
G
Grandpa
Smells of coffee, wool, and sometimes the sea. Kept a folded paper for sixty years, just in case.
M
Old Maren
Blind, and sees more than anyone. Keeper of the Book of Names.
C
Captain Cora
Of the green-hulled Bright Tern. Wastes no words and no wind.
F
Finn
Quick hands, quicker exits. Hard to get rid of. Ask anyone.
C
Caspar
Keeper of the Ashport library. Forty years of records, waiting for the right reader.
C
Admiral Craw
Master of the Ironjaw fleet. Twenty years of taking. Wants what the bottle carries.
A Word for Parents
The Tideline Chronicles began as a bedtime story a dad told his own children, and the series is built for reading aloud: short chapters, warm humor, and the kind of sentences that are fun to say out loud.
Every voyage carries something worth keeping. Timmy learns courage when the storm is bigger than he is. He learns faithfulness by carrying something precious all the way home, no matter how long the road. He learns friendship and loyalty aboard a crew that becomes a family. And beneath it all runs something quietly true: that every child is named on purpose, loved before they arrive, and never lost to the One who made them.
The series grows with its reader. The first voyages are gentle, for listeners as young as four. The later books sail deeper water, through sacrifice and homecoming, on purpose, at the pace a child grows. Every book carries a recommended age: read aloud from four, five, or six depending on the voyage, and seven and up for a child reading on their own.
Vlad Gundorin is a Christian husband and father. The Tideline Chronicles began as a story he told his own children at bedtime, one chapter at a time, and grew into twelve voyages. He writes with conviction carried through story, wonder, and salt spray, never a sermon.
The first voyages are already at sea.
Books 1–6 are out now, with six more on the way. Get the free Saltworld Map and Pip’s First Day on the Morningstar, and be aboard for every voyage still to come.
