Behind the case files
Meet Keil Marcus
Keil Marcus is a children’s author who is passionate about helping young people build the confidence and life skills they need to succeed in school, relationships, and life.
Inspired by her work in Human Resources—where she focuses on developing people, strengthening communities, and creating inclusive environments—Keil created the Tiny Detectives book series. These fun and adventurous stories follow young detectives Jaylen, Amara, and their friends as they solve everyday mysteries while learning important social-emotional skills like self-confidence, teamwork, empathy, and responsible decision-making.
The Tiny Detectives series combines engaging storytelling with interactive activities, affirmations, and investigation worksheets that encourage children to think critically, solve problems, and believe in themselves.
Keil believes every child deserves to see themselves reflected in the stories they read. Through diverse characters and relatable experiences, her books aim to inspire curiosity, kindness, and courage in young readers everywhere.
The learning approach
CASEL-Aligned Learning
Tiny Detectives stories are designed with the CASEL Framework in mind—helping children practice five essential social-emotional learning skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
Through everyday mysteries, diverse characters, activities, affirmations, and conversation prompts, each adventure gives children meaningful ways to explore big feelings, build confidence, work with others, and make thoughtful choices.
Inspired by CASEL’s whole-child approach, Tiny Detectives supports SEL conversations across the places children learn and grow: at home, in classrooms, at school, and in the community.
Tiny Detectives is independently created and is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL.