fuonlyknew

MY REVIEW

I had such fun reading this book. If I had to choose what was my favorite part I’d be hard pressed. The tongue twisting descriptions written in rhyme. The delightful, silly animals doing insane things. Or the funny, adorable illustrations of those critters, even bugs, doing those silly things. Even the title promised silliness and fun.

If I got so much enjoyment from this book, I’m sure young ones would too. Whether read aloud to them, read together, or reading it on their own, the fun to be discovered is endless. I recommend you grab a copy and join the fun.

5 STARS

Your book has a number of worldwide locations featured. Have you traveled to any of these places?

I love to travel internationally, but I have only gotten to see a few of these spots so far: New York, Hollywood, and Spain. I have yet to visit Antarctica, Greenland, Peru, Berlin, Switzerland, or Cabo. This may surprise you to hear, but I’ve also never been to Saturn. 🙂

Are there combos that you wrote for this book that didn’t make the final cut?

So many actually! With more than thirty combos in this book, there were dozens that didn’t make it in. The reasons vary, too. Some of my early animal choices were too obscure where even the adult readers were getting tripped up. This is why the tardigrade, who many folks hadn’t heard of, got replaced by a zooplankton. Some others didn’t make the cut because the rhyme didn’t really pair nicely with any others. Here are a few of the combos that were early cuts: A yak visiting his grandma in South Palm Beach, a shark on the Acropolis, a tick in Timbuktu, and a cricket at a cricket match.

What authors are you most inspired by?

If you know my body of work at all, you would know that I am big into rhyming. As such, I’m particularly inspired by Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss. Their books were some of my favorites as a kid, and they remain favorites for me to read to my kids. I love that both of these authors’ works make you think and smile and sometimes laugh, which is exactly the space I’d like my books to occupy.

You are a mom as well. Do your kids take an interest in your books?

So far my kids are some of my biggest fans. I’ll be bummed when they fully outgrow being my in-house beta readers. But for now, I delight in how they share my excitement when my books arrive and repeat back lines from my stories. It’s the best!

Your book is a wild mix of animals and places. Any page that’s your spirit animal?

The page I can most relate to is the snails on shooting stars. When it comes to dreaming big, I never shy away from making a cool book or film project or performing standup comedy. The sky’s the limit! But much like the snail that looks terrified by being hurled through the universe, sometimes I’m white knuckling it through the unknown.