The book I'm working on now has lions in it, so I get to read all kinds of books and websites about big cats, their behavior, their statistics, habits, diet, everything. It's amazing how like my own domestic cats they are in many ways. Sometimes, one of my cats, Lupe, watches lion shows on Animal Planet with me. Her favorite show ever, though, was a program about a goat farm. She couldn't take her eyes off the screen when those goats frolicked and ambled across the meadow. Like a tiny, white lion stalking antelopes?

[Sung (badly) to the tune of "Goin' Back to Indiana" by the Jackson Five.]

Goin' back to Indiana Illinois
Back to where we started from,
Goin' back to Indiana Illinois
Illinois, here we come!

Ottawa, you got a lot o' pretty things,
Saw a lot of cheese and moose and skating rinks,
But I ain't got my oyster crackers and I'm feelin' wrong,
That's why I gotta sing this song, yeah.

Goin' back to Illinois
Back to where the land is flay-at,
Goin' back to Illinois, yeah
That's where a toque is called a hay-at.

[OK, Daley, you got it . . .]

Repeat if desired.

I know, the oyster crackers line needs work. And some others probably.

I'll soon be leaving Canada and moving back to Illinois. The fun times I've had in Ottawa notwithstanding, I'm happy to be going back to Chicagoland, where I feel most at home these days.

Best of all, I've already located an area supplier of red wigglers for this season's worm farm! As soon as I'm unpacked, I'll make room for more worms.

Winnie Finn is going to be one of ten picture books kids will read for the Maine Chickadee Award next year. Kids in Maine schools will hear or read stories chosen by librarians and educators statewide and then vote for their faves. What an honor!

Visit our new blog about children's book cover art and design, co-authored with poet Julie Larios called Jacket Knack

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