Planet Park Club

Planet Park Club

Quiet chapter books for children who notice things.

By Olena Karpenko

A soft watercolour illustration of a small city park at dusk: a wooden bench with one slat missing, a low round fountain tiled in blue, four young trees, a bent slide, and warm ochre apartment buildings behind.
Illustration of a blue recycling bin in a park, filled to the top, with a small handmade cardboard sign tied crookedly to it with string. A pigeon with one pale feather stands on the paving nearby.

Book OneThe Blue Bin Mystery

Three friends. One small city park. A blue bin that keeps filling up in the middle of the night.

Luna wonders. Leo counts. Sami feels things the others miss. Together, they follow one small mystery through their neighbourhood — past the fountain, past Doña Marta's shop, up towards a third-floor balcony with a brown plant on it — and find something quieter and kinder than they expected.

  • Ages 4–7
  • Chapter book, fourteen short chapters
  • Read aloud, or listen together
Listen on ElevenReader

It was the kind of Tuesday where nothing had happened yet.

The park at the end of the street was warm. The bench was warm. Even the shadow under the bench was warm, which was strange, because shadows are supposed to be the cool part.

The Blue Bin Mystery, chapter one

The three of them

Leo

The counter. He knows how many.

Sami

The feeler. He knows how it feels.

Luna

The wonderer. She knows what to ask.

About Olena

Olena Karpenko lives in Valencia. She grew up between languages and cities, and now writes quiet chapter books for children in a warm apartment above a small park at the end of a street. The Planet Park Club is her first series — stories for ages 4 to 7, meant to be read aloud, or heard together, or fallen asleep to. She writes for children who notice things, and for the grown-ups who used to.