The Toucan Who Can Can-can

Description

The Story

. . . behind the story

So, what prompted a writer of suspense novels to write a children’s book? It’s a simple answer . . . grandchildren.

A few years ago, our daughter was reading to her then 1-1/2-year-old son when the title The Toucan Who Can Can-can came into her mind. She laughed at the idea of a toucan with short legs attempting to do that famous high-energy dance from French cabarets. She texted the phrase to me, and what followed was a two-day back-and-forth of similar fun rhymes, names, etc. For her, that was all, a fun text exchange.

But a few weeks later, with a relatively free afternoon, I decided to put some of that text exchange into a story. I surprised her with it via email and again, a back-and-forth of refinements and additions resulted. The end result is the story you’ll find here. And yet again, for her, it was fun, but she had no interest in trying to publish it.

But, I couldn’t simply let it go. The story was too much fun to die there. After several false starts with illustrators, my wife came across some of Jacqulin’s artwork. We met her when she was hired on as a first-grade teacher at Tall Oaks Academy, a school where I’m a board member. Her in-laws also happened to be friends of ours. Still, her love of watercolors didn’t become known to us for another year or so. When I approached her about illustrating a children’s book, she jumped at the opportunity. It was something she’d always wanted to do. So, agreements were made . . . and she was sworn to secrecy . . . because our daughter had no clue that “our” book was about to come to life.

With the release of this book, my surprise for Stacey was completed. And now, we’d love to share this story with your kids and grands.