Until I read her blog post at Kids in the Valley, Adventuring!, I’d never realized how perfect my book was for families with monkeys. Not only did I include my favorite faux-scary campfire story, which (SPOILER ALERT) happens to feature a monkey, but I also included a recipe for banana boats, which (I know it’s sacrilege) I may actually like better than s’mores—give me a break, they taste like a warm banana split, NOM NOM NOM. So, if your family has a stuffed monkey with an affinity for camping and other outdoor activities, perhaps you should give my book a try.

And can I just tell you that I was particularly excited to see the monkey resides near Roanoke, Virginia? I grew up in nearby Danville, VA, and frequently camped, hiked, and even built campfires in the Roanoke area with my Girl Scout troop. Yay, southern Virginia!

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I had so much fun creating this book with Ali Freile, one of my favorite designers, and Sherry Berger, the amazing illustrator who brought our ideas to life—it was definitely a collaborative effort! Ali used to live here in Philly, but moved to Australia a few years ago, so we spent HOURS brainstorming ideas for the book and figuring out how to make the 3-D effects as cool as possible via iChat videoconferencing. It was really incredible being able to see her & show her things over the video link even though we were half a world away.

Since Sherry’s located here in Philly, I was actually able to meet with her in person a few times, and I think her super-cute illustrations really make the book.  I especially adore the Robot Repair Shop spread and her awesome alien on the Mission to Mars page. I’d love to work with her again someday, because she’s wonderful.

As soon as I got an advance copy hot off the presses, I put on the glasses that came with the book to make sure the 3-D effects were working okay, and they are fantastic!  The amount of 3-D effect does vary depending on how far away you hold the book from your face, so if it doesn’t seem all that great at first, try moving the book back and forth until the drawings start to really pop. Once I get some more author copies, I’m definitely going to bring a few to Spells Writing Lab and let the kids I tutor there have fun with it.

Hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think!

For one hand catch, we even used the videographer’s arm, because it was the last one we were photographing and all the girls had already gone home. Luckily, his hands were pretty delicate and nice-looking for a guy, so you can’t really tell.

I LOVE the super-cute design of this book, which was created by Ali Freile, one of my fave designers. I used to work with her at Running Press, but she now lives in Australia, so we spent many hours on iChat talking about this book and the other one I have coming out this spring, also from Applesauce Press.

You can click here for a list of online retailers, or look for it in your local bookstore.

Enjoy!