Good Stories.
Worthy Ideas.
Join the Katz family in stories about everyday choices, challenges, adventures—and the lessons they discover along the way.
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The Curious Katz Stories
What makes someone truly worth knowing?
Cal and Tabi discover that everyone carries an invisible “basket” filled with the qualities that make us who we are—honesty, kindness, courage, responsibility, patience, humor, and more. Through a lively family conversation, they learn that while appearances may catch our attention, it’s what’s inside the basket that builds lasting relationships.
What does it really mean to make a promise?
Cal and Tabi have always wanted a dog. When Mollie joins the Katz family, they quickly discover that loving her means more than playing, cuddling, and taking walks—it means accepting responsibility for someone who depends on them every single day.
When Tabi forgets one important responsibility and Mollie becomes sick, the consequences of a broken promise suddenly become very real. Tabi learns that responsibility isn't just something you say—it's something you follow through on, even when other things seem more important.
What does it mean to truly understand someone who is different from you?
When Lila, a new classmate with just one hand, arrives at school, she quickly becomes the target of whispers and cruel jokes. Tabi doesn’t join in—but realizes that staying silent isn’t the same as standing up for someone.
After spending a week with one hand wrapped and unusable, Tabi begins to understand Lila’s daily challenges—and discovers her strength, determination, and character. Along the way, an unlikely friendship begins to grow.
The Curious Katz Stories
Does everyone deserve a trophy?
Cal loves soccer and works hard all season—but his team finishes last. When every player receives a trophy anyway, Cal isn't proud. Instead, he begins wondering what a trophy actually means if everyone gets one, regardless of the outcome.
Comparing his trophy with the one Tabi’s championship team truly earned, Cal discovers that competition has two honest sides: the joy of winning and the sting of losing. Winning rewards accomplishment; losing shows you where you need to improve
What does it take to teach someone something new?
When Cal and Tabi try to teach Mollie a few basic commands, they’re convinced the problem is the dog. But an experienced trainer soon shows them that Mollie isn’t the one who needs the most training.
As they learn how patience, consistency, encouragement, and persistence can change Mollie’s behavior, Cal and Tabi discover that the same lessons apply to people, too. Sometimes success doesn’t come from trying harder—it comes from learning how to teach, listen, and keep working until you get it right.
What happens when one little lie starts to grow?
Cal tells what seems like a tiny lie to avoid doing his homework. But when the truth catches up with him, he discovers that lies have a way of growing—much like weeds in a garden.
With help from Tabi and Dad, Cal learns that honesty is about more than simply telling the truth. It’s about protecting the trust that holds people together—and having the courage to admit when you’ve made a mistake.
The Curious Katz Stories
What happens when someone you trust betrays that trust?
Week after week, Tabi chooses silver coins instead of spending money and carefully adds them to a glass jar in her bedroom. To her, their familiar clink is more than the sound of money—it represents patience, discipline, and a dream slowly getting closer.
Then, after a wonderful sleepover with her friend Sophie, Tabi discovers that most of the coins are gone. What follows becomes about far more than stolen money. When Sophie admits what she has done and tries to make things right, Tabi must confront a harder question: Can trust be rebuilt after someone breaks it? The answer isn't simple or immediate—and neither is forgiveness.
When is a child ready for a smartphone—and who should decide?
Tabi is convinced she's ready. A smartphone would help with safety, school projects, staying in touch, and, perhaps most importantly, not feeling like the only kid without one. But rather than simply argue her case, Tabi does some research of her own and discovers that smartphones and social media come with risks she hadn't considered.
When she presents both sides to her parents, they listen—but the answer is still no. Instead, they offer a compromise that gives Tabi a way to stay connected without handing her the entire online world. Tabi discovers that growing up isn't always about getting what you want; sometimes it's about understanding why the people who love you say not yet.
Can something good come from even the saddest of circumstances?
Felicia Katz is an intensive-care nurse who knows that caring for people sometimes means facing heartbreaking moments. When a nine-year-old boy is brought to her ICU after a fatal injury, his grieving parents make the extraordinary decision to donate his organs.
The experience follows Felicia home, where Tabi and Cal begin to understand both the emotional burden their mother sometimes carries and the quiet ways a family can care for one another. The next day, Felicia hears the boy's heart beating inside another child—and sees how one family's terrible loss has given another family hope.
The Curious Katz Stories
What do you do when something seems too hard to even begin?
When Tabi, Cal, and Lila get together to study, each has an assignment they would rather avoid. Tabi decides to tackle her dreaded fractions first—and the friends soon discover that difficult jobs become much less intimidating when you take them one step at a time.
Along the way, they learn that taking breaks, helping one another, and breaking a big problem into smaller pieces can make the hardest part simply getting started.
Are the people we see on television really like the people we know?
Tabi notices that television and commercials often portray dads as bumbling and incompetent, and she begins to wonder whether men really are that way. Her parents encourage her to look beyond the stereotype and think about the men—and women—she actually knows.
Through an ordinary day with her family, Tabi discovers that people contribute in different ways, and that caring for a family isn't about proving who is more capable. It's about using our different strengths, solving problems, and working together as partners.
What if the water stopped flowing when you turned on the faucet?
Cal has never thought much about water—until his family points out just how easily he wastes it. He soon discovers that clean, usable water isn't unlimited and that for many people around the world, getting enough water requires time, effort, and sometimes considerable hardship.
When Cal gets a small taste of what it's like to carry the water he needs himself, an everyday resource suddenly doesn't seem so ordinary. He learns that conserving water isn't about going without—it's about appreciating what we have and remembering that every drop matters.
The Curious Katz Stories
What is money really worth?
When Cal and Tabi begin earning a weekly allowance, they discover that getting money is only the beginning—the important part is deciding what to do with it. While Tabi saves and thinks ahead, Cal spends his money almost as quickly as he earns it.
Then Cal discovers an $80 remote-controlled airplane he desperately wants—and an empty wallet. Suddenly, saving, investing, and waiting don't seem quite so boring. Cal begins to understand that money isn't just something to spend: every dollar you keep gives you choices later.
What does Memorial Day really mean?
To Cal, Memorial Day has always meant a day off from school, burgers on the grill, and fun at the pool. But when his family visits a veterans’ cemetery to place flags on the graves, Cal begins to see the holiday differently.
At the grave of the great-grandfather whose name he carries, he learns about courage, sacrifice, and the importance of remembering those who served. By the end of the day, Cal understands that Memorial Day can be a time for both celebration and remembrance—and that those who sacrificed should never be forgotten.
What happens when fear feels more powerful than you are?
Cal is fearless during the day, but nighttime is different. When a terrifying black bird appears in a vivid dream, his fear feels completely real—and impossible to escape.
With his dad beside him, Cal begins to understand that fear has a way of convincing us the worst will happen. He discovers that being afraid doesn’t mean being helpless—and that courage isn’t the absence of fear, but deciding how you will face it.
The Curious Katz Stories
Some jobs are easy to notice. Others are easy to take for granted—until something stops working.
When a powerful storm knocks out the electricity in Cal Katz's neighborhood, an ordinary evening suddenly becomes very different. The lights are out, the internet is gone, and families gather together by flashlight and lantern.
But while everyone else waits for the power to return, Cal's neighbor Chuck heads out into the storm.
Chuck is a pilot, a teacher, a builder, and a utility worker who doesn't spend much time talking about himself. As Cal begins to understand why Chuck is willing to leave his family and work through the night, he discovers something important about responsibility, service, and the people who quietly keep a community going.
When Cal’s friend Marcus gets into a fight after someone targets his little sister with a racial insult, Cal thinks the situation is simple: Marcus was standing up for her. But an evening with family and friends raises questions that aren’t so easily answered. How do you decide when to walk away and when to stand your ground? Why would someone judge another person by skin color? With humor, honest conversation, and a look into history, Someone Worth Knowing invites children and adults to talk about friendship, prejudice, judgment, and what truly makes a person worth knowing.
Tabi Katz is beginning sixth grade when she meets Emma, the new girl in class. Emma seems to have everything Tabi wishes she had—confidence, good looks, friends, talent, and an effortless ability to stand in front of the class and speak. The more Tabi watches Emma, especially online, the more she begins comparing herself to her.
But Tabi soon discovers that the person we see at school or online may be only a small part of who that person really is. Emma has worries and insecurities of her own—and, much to Tabi’s surprise, she has been making some comparisons too. As their friendship grows, Tabi begins to understand the danger of measuring her whole self against the carefully presented parts of someone else’s life.
When Cal learns that his grandfather served in the Coast Guard, he realizes there’s a lot he never thought to ask. Soon, Grandpa’s old photographs and stories take Cal from a classroom to distant ports, Antarctic ice, thousands of penguins—and a lonely radio room where someone always had to be listening.
Along the way, Cal discovers that service doesn’t always look heroic. Sometimes it simply means standing your watch, doing your job well, and knowing that others are depending on you.