A Young Adult Novel by Ken Luber · Now in Development as an Animated Series

Four Kids From the Stone Age Just Crash-Landed in Modern L.A.

The Sun Jumpers is the award-winning coming-of-age adventure turning reluctant readers into obsessed ones — the vision-quest story your family, classroom, or reading circle won’t stop talking about.

★ 4.62 / 5 — Goodreads 🏆 Award of Literary Excellence Ages 10+ · 296 pages $12.99 Paperback

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4.62★

Goodreads Rating

Award

Literary Excellence

TV Series

In Development

Kirkus

& Midwest Book Review

A frozen, dying world from the opening of The Sun Jumpers trailer

The Story

Four Teens. One Impossible Journey.

When his people run out of food and faith, fourteen-year-old Ty defies his father, his shaman, and ten thousand years of staying behind, and sets out with his closest wings — Sita, Ko, and Shum — to find the legendary tribe that left the caves long before he was born. What they find instead is Los Angeles: skateboards, bubble gum, Star Wars, a director named Darren who has never once stood up to his father, and a city with absolutely no idea what to do with four Stone Age teenagers. The Sun Jumpers is a coming-of-age adventure about the vision quest we all eventually have to make — the one that finally answers who, exactly, we’re willing to become.

Meet the Sun Jumpers

The Clan That Refused to Stay Behind

Bright, funny, fiercely loyal — and about to learn that ten thousand years is nothing compared to the distance between who you are and who you’re meant to become.

The four Sun Jumpers — Ty, Sita, Shum, and Ko — together in the cave country

The Seeker

Ty

Fourteen winters old and done waiting for the world to change on its own. Ty is the reason four kids from a cave above the River Gan end up in a carpet commercial — and the reason they survive it.

“We will not stay behind anymore!”

The Shaman-in-Waiting

Sita

She can star-step into other centuries in her sleep, mix a potion that outruns a beast twice her size, and reduce Ty to a mumbling teenager in four words. Sita is the smartest person in either world.

“I am Sita, the shaman-in-waiting, and I love you.”

The Wing With the Spear

Shum

Gentle, a little dreamy, deadly with a spear he isn’t supposed to be carrying, and the first Kishoki in ten thousand years to win a stuffed panda at a boardwalk game.

“It’s beautiful… but it ended.”

The Wall

Ko

Built like a boulder, remembers everything he hears, and never once backs down — not from a skinhead, not from a beast, not from a Beverly Hills store manager. The most loyal wing in the clan.

“I’m a locked-in Houdini… I remember everything I hear.”

The time-travel portal starburst with clockwork rings

Travel Through Time

They Didn’t Travel Through Time. They Fell Through It.

A golden shell, a promise from a one-eyed shaman, and ten thousand years of clockwork cosmic distance stand between the River Gan and right now. The Sun Jumpers don’t just cross it — they crash straight through.

The Los Angeles sunset skyline from the trailer

Modern Los Angeles

L.A. Has No Idea What Just Walked Into Frame.

Darren Davies is twenty-four, shooting hillside carpet commercials for his father’s chain of stores, and quietly drowning in a life he never chose. He’s on a mountaintop in Topanga setting up a shot when four kids in leather and fur wander into frame — kids his crew assumes are cosplaying a rap group. They are not.

The Reluctant Son

Darren Davies

Twenty-four, six-foot-two, and one bad phone call from becoming his father. He directs carpet commercials for a man who calls himself the Karpet King — until four Stone Age teenagers climb into his backyard.

“I think we’re brothers from another galaxy.”

Aspiring Actress

Dorsey Tang

Darren’s girlfriend, forever one audition from her big break, and not remotely interested in why there are cave kids camped out in his living room.

“Don’t get weird, Sita.”

The city they found had skateboards, sitcoms, and absolutely no idea what to do with four Stone Age teenagers.

A night city street where the two worlds first meet

Two Worlds Collide

Underneath the comedy is real friction — culture clash, identity, and the courage it takes to stand out. Kirkus Reviews calls it “a charming flight of fancy” that doesn’t shy away from something true.

Ancient and modern teens together on a Los Angeles street at night

Free Preview — Chapter One

It Never Rains in Southern California

Darren stood at the kitchen counter beating out “When the Saints Go Marching In” with a plastic spatula in his right hand. “Oh when the saints… Oh when those saints…” He bopped across the kitchen, craning his neck back and waving the spatula, as if the refrigerator and stove had joined the march one step behind him. Louis Armstrong growled through the CD player.

He stopped in the living room and paused at the big picture window facing the front yard. The sun had already left the LA sky. Low clouds still glowed with a ruby gold tint. Seconds later, the clouds banged together in a timpani of thunder. “Come on in, saints. I need a miracle!” he pleaded, as his gaze brushed the swaying palms.

The phone rang. It was his father, calling about the shoot. “I’m not making a Disney picture,” the Karpet King snapped. “This is a carpet commercial, Darren.”

…continues in Chapter One of The Sun Jumpers.

Keep Reading — Get the Book

In Their Words

Lines From Both Worlds

Time is a bundle.

Sita

Where the elders only see shadows, you see light.

Man Who Stands Alone

You do now.

Ty, to Darren

You’re doing the right thing, son.

Glen Davies, the Karpet King

You have to let Darren be who he wants to be.

Sita, to Mr. Davies

We came here on the light of the golden shell, and so we will return.

Ty

Critical Reception

What Reviewers Are Saying

“A lighthearted romp… permeated by humor regarding adolescent antics, twenty-something angst, and a wealth of inevitable culture-clash misunderstandings… also deals with some serious issues, including modern-day bigotry… and the need to find and follow one’s own truth. A charming flight of fancy that provides a pleasant, thoughtful diversion.”

Kirkus Reviews

“A witty yet moving tale of teenage love, the power of friendship, and how bravery and a willing heart can save an entire people… consistently compelling, original, and memorable.”

Midwest Book Review

“A fun, very positive, happy read… a light-hearted, playful theme” with “a slight philosophical edge.”

Donna Clapham, reader — United Kingdom

★ 4.62 / 5 average reader rating · Goodreads

The Author

Ken Luber

Ken Luber studied at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop after graduating from Ripon College, then trained as a Writer/Director Fellow at the American Film Institute. His feature film Howzer screened at the Whitney Museum and was distributed by Warner Bros. He has since written for film, television, and the stage — including the musical Esperanza: A Musical of Hope, which premiered in Palm Springs — along with the novels An Angel, A Dealer, The Deal and Saving My Ancient Life, and several children’s books.

The Sun Jumpers, his young-adult debut, won its publisher’s Award of Literary Excellence and is currently in development for animated television with Gang of Seven Animation. Luber lives in Southern California with his wife, the artist Kathleen.

WGA member DGA member ASCAP member Represented by Pittmobile Talent Agency

For Book Clubs, Classrooms & Communities

Built for Reading Together

Running a classroom, library program, youth group, or family book club? Ken Luber wrote these questions to travel with the manuscript — ready to print, no prep required.

Beneath the humor, the novel treats real themes — identity, prejudice, courage — with warmth rather than shock, making it a natural springboard for family and classroom conversation.

How does growing up in caves, as opposed to growing up in a single family apartment or home, affect the way the teenagers think?
Does growing up in a clan, in contrast to modern, individualized social units, enhance a sense of communal loyalty or create jealousies?
Is Sita, a spiritual seeker, wrong for being attracted to styles and fashion?
What effect does skin color have on the various characters in the book?
How does one resolve the tension between loyalty to one’s family and one’s personal dream? Can it ever be resolved?
How does Ty’s courage affect Darren?
Wealth can be a tremendous advantage, but how does the novel also show how it can erode one’s character?
How does Sita’s female perspective influence Ty’s decision making?
Why do the teenage boys taste the blood of the beast they’ve slain? Is there a modern equivalent in our rituals of victory?
What do you think Darren owes his father?
Is there a difference between love and loyalty, and how is it expressed in Ty’s attitude toward his father?
Do groups of people with drastically shorter life spans necessarily experience a deeper understanding or maturity earlier in their lives?

Ordering for a group? The Sun Jumpers works as a single family read-aloud or a full classroom set — one book, a dozen ready-made conversations, and a story every age in the room will argue about happily.

Coming Soon to Animated Television The Sun Jumpers title card with Ty, Shum, and Ko in the forest

The Sun Jumpers is currently in development for animated television with Gang of Seven Animation. Read the novel that started it all — before the rest of the world catches up.

The full cast of The Sun Jumpers together in the forest

Get the Book

This Is the Story Your Kid Won’t Stop Talking About.

Award-winning, reader-loved, and now becoming an animated series — The Sun Jumpers is just $12.99 in paperback, available wherever books are sold, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and Nook.

$12.99 Paperback ★ 4.62 / 5 rating 🏆 Award of Literary Excellence 🎬 Becoming an animated series

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Be one of the first to read it — before the show brings everyone else to the story.

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