Assyrian NextGen LLC · Niles, Illinois
Our story
Twelve books, eight workshop sessions, and one rule: nothing goes on a page that a parent can’t check.
Blast Off! started with a stack of science books our kids brought home and never finished. The pictures were fine. The writing talked at them — thin on real numbers, thick with excitement, and it never once asked the child to say anything back.
So we wrote the ones we wanted. Every fact in a Blast Off! book traces to NASA or another named source, and the Sources page at the back says exactly where, so checking any page takes a parent about a minute. The sentences use words a six-year-old already owns. And every page closes with a Tell It Like a Leader! box that asks the child to explain what they just read to a grown-up, out loud.
That box is why we started a company and not just a series. Knowing a fact and being able to say it to someone are two different skills. School gives kids years of practice at the first and almost none at the second, and then asks for the second one for the rest of their lives. A seven-year-old who can stand up and explain why the Moon has no wind has already done the harder half.
What we make
The Blast Off! series. Amazing Space Facts for Curious Kids, ages 6 to 9. Five of the twelve planned books are out — the Sun and our solar system, the inner planets, the giant planets, the Moon, and the stars. $12.99 in paperback, and free to read on Kindle Unlimited.
STEM workshops in Niles. Eight weekly sessions, two hours each, ages 6 to 10, $150 for the course. Small groups and hands-on builds, run on the same rule as the books: the child explains what they built before they carry it out the door.
Where the name comes from
Assyrian NextGen is a family company, and the name says what we’re trying to do — raise the next generation of leaders. Our parents carried a language and a history out of a place where a great deal of it was lost, and what a child can explain is what a child keeps. That idea is what the Tell It Like a Leader! box on every page is for.