Meet Chip and Ben, two friends who realized that when they are together, the creativity is electric!  Early on, Chip marveled at Ben’s artistic ability.  When Chip had his first daughter, he asked Ben to be Sage’s Godfather.  When Sage turned 3, Chip and Ben sat down to create a sketch story that Ben could give to Sage for Christmas.  Juji was born and the first draft of the story involved Juji worrying about a little garden that wasn’t getting any rain in the dry season in Africa.  All the grown-ups told her to be patient and trust nature.  At the end of the story, a rain drop fell on her cheek as she lay down for the night.  The story was so sweet and the illustrations were so good that Chip considered using his Anthropology contacts to meet with Dr. Jane Goodall.  She loved the drawings and said she would do whatever she could to help us.  We were on cloud nine!  Months (and many hours of Ben at the drawing table) later, we had a finished book.  We made a sample copy and sent to Dr. Goodall for her endorsement.  It was very cute but when we got it back from Dr. Goodall, she said that she couldn’t endorse it because the animals were talking and she felt that wasn’t an accurate representation.  She also pointed out that we had an orangutan in Africa which never happens.  And most importantly, she said that we no longer have the luxury of “trust nature” since we have put so many species in danger with our human activity.  After this setback, we gave up trying to get this book published.

But then we thought about all that she said and knew with our creativity, we could make a new book that she would endorse!  We started from scratch except we knew that Juji had to be our main character.  But now, we didn’t want her talking, so we invented a human character named Emelia (after Sage’s middle name) and the idea of comparing how similar we are became our new theme with the moral about human beings making a difference.  Our ability to reflect and correct what we have done is one of the biggest distinctions between us and the animals we share this planet with.

Since we finished the new version of our book and received the powerful endorsement of Dr. Goodall, our journey has been bittersweet.  We were shopping for publishers when Chip’s dad passed away suddenly.  He was such a huge support for the book that since he left Chip some inheritance, he decide that he would use that money to publish it with a small publishing house named Inkwater Press.   Also, when the shipment of 2200 books came in, we were ecstatic.  Ben took his first box home to Santa Barbara only to have his home burned down by wildfires with the box of books and the computer with all of the Juji files in it.  We weren’t starting off the way we imagined, but with a few Author’s day presentations (shout out to Hawes elementary being first) and friends and family purchases, we had sold more than we lost quite quickly.
So now here we are with you reading this.  Either you already have the book and are checking out the story or you are checking out the story and don’t have the book.  We’d like you to have it.  If you don’t have a 6-10 year old to read it to, you may always purchase one for the local school library.  We appreciate your support.

Check back often to hear about the next book where Chippo the Hippo learns that everything has its place in nature!

READ FOREWORD HERE