That nightly reading is how Cass noticed the gap.

The great stories, such as Treasure Island, Frankenstein, and The Odyssey, came in two flavors. There were editions written for adults, dense and forbidding, and there were versions so thinned out that the danger, the history, and the science had been quietly removed.

Her reader wanted the middle: the actual story, told at a pace she could follow, with nothing important taken out on her behalf.

So Cass started writing that middle version herself.

Her adaptations keep the plot, the moral weight, and the period detail intact. Sailing terms stay sailing terms. The science in Frankenstein stays science. What changes is the sentence length, the momentum, and the assumption underneath it all: a young reader can handle a hard idea if you give them a clear runway into it.

She still reads aloud most nights. It remains the best editing tool she’s found.