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By Amy Schwabe
Ben Peetz, who graduated from Brown Deer High School in 2022, has released his first children’s book, The Crush. The picture book is the first in a series which tells the stories of a cast of teenage characters Ben has created, a group of friends who call themselves the 7/24 Deeds gang because they do good deeds 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
For years, Ben has used his graphic design skills to create casts of characters inspired by his love of various children’s TV shows, including Blue’s Clues, Thomas the Tank Engine, and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls. His dream has always been to tell his characters’ stories by creating his own animated TV or YouTube shows. He has honed his design skills through workshops at Islands of Brilliance, a Milwaukee nonprofit organization which pairs neurodivergent participants with creative mentors, as well as through high school art classes, where he became one of the only students to earn Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator certifications.
Ben, who is autistic and has a language processing disorder, had spent years working with his mom, Alison Peetz, and various job coaches and agencies to secure job placements. However, he was never given job opportunities which capitalized upon his talents. His ideal career was to utilize his artistic and storytelling skills. He just needed help with the words and the publishing logistics.
That’s where Alison and independent journalist, Amy Schwabe, came in. After Ben introduced Amy to his characters and told her the story he imagined, Amy worked with him to co-write his first children’s book. Ben illustrated the story. Together, Ben, Alison, and Amy have self-published The Crush, with plans to continue the book series, and hopefully someday, to animate it.
The 7/24 Deeds cast of characters are a group of teenage friends who do good deeds for other people in their hometown of Emerald Falls. They hang out with each other in the clubhouse they built in the backyard of one of the friends, and in the future, we might even see some superpowers along the way as the gang levels up in their abilities to do good deeds.
In the first installment of the 7/24 Deeds series, we meet the gang, including Borri Ovelene and Violet Blossomworth. The story starts out with Borri bringing the rest of their friend group together to make a huge batch of onion rings for Violet because she’s sad that the process of making her favorite snack makes her sneeze uncontrollably. And then Borri himself is helped by his friends when they give him their best suggestions for how to make a good first impression on the first girl he’s ever had a crush on, Chelsey.
The Crush is now available to purchase through Amazon. Ben is also selling the books and trading cards of his characters through his Ben Peetz Productions website. Ben, Alison, and Amy will also be selling his book and character trading cards at the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities’ Self-Determination Conference on October 20 and 21.
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