Author, Photographer and Founder of BiG GUY BOOKS, Inc. Raised in upstate New York, Robert Gould pursued an education in photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the early 70s. His radical use of surrealism in the world of photo illustration for advertising was considered years ahead of its time and Gould opened his own graphic design agency, taking his state-of-the-art imagery into the realm of marketing with Image One, creating some 70,000+ ad designs for over 7000 clients around the U.S..With a passion for reading he learned about the plight of the "reluctant reader" after discovering that his two young sons didn't like to read on their own. This was disturbing for Gould as he came from a family of voracious readers and he read to his sons every night as young children. Determined to find an answer for this "reluctance to read," he embarked upon a two year research study on boys and reading. In 1999, Gould opened BiG Guy Books, Inc., a publishing company committed to curing the reluctant reader syndrome by creating a new genre of book...a high resolution, photographic "movie-book" that turned fantasy into reality on the written page and engaging boy's minds visually, instantly creating a desire to read text in order to gather more information about the images on the page. He called it "Stealth Literacy" and it worked fantastically."Today we live in a world of highly visual, fast-paced video entertainment, we are losing a generation of young children to growing masses of 'reluctant readers'" states Gould, "and it is of the utmost importance that this trend be corrected. The future of our world depends upon our youth becoming educated as they grow into the leaders of the future. This cannot happen if they are not literate."It is Gould's mission to create books that are visually stimulating and engaging enough to recapture these children and instill in them the joy of reading and the thrill of learning again. BiG GUY BOOKS is built on the belief that literacy is a birthright for every child. It is Robert's desire that every child embrace that right.Robert combined his passions of photography and storytelling to create and publish his TIME SOLDIERS® SERIES aka the "movie books" - a unique approach to story-telling that absolutely captivates the minds and attention of even the most reluctant readers, convincing them that reading can be more fun than they ever imagined! The Time Soldiers® books are in school libraries across the country and continue to be praised as "the most popular books in the library...checked out continuously by both boys and girls in grade school."