This book started back in 2009 as a project with my friend, Cindy Li. I don't remember now why we chose a children's book about animals; neither of us had kids at the time. Maybe it just seemed like a creative space that we felt would be fun to explore, and an A-Z format felt like a fun and straightforward way to kick things off.
After several months of steadily working on illustrations and verses, life took over and the book project quietly went dormant.
In 2016 Cindy became very sick. Now living in different cities, we stayed in touch over Facebook Messenger. Cindy would tell me about her beautiful sons, Apollo and Orion. When I became pregnant with a little boy, she gave me lots of advice on how to take care of him. She also kept me up to date on her ongoing treatment.
In the summer of 2018 we restarted the book project as a way for us to reconnect and for Cindy to have a creative, positive outlet at a time when that was deeply needed. And while we didn’t say it out loud, we both knew that we needed to work quickly so that we could finish while we still had time.
We didn’t finish it in time.
In October of 2018 I visited Cindy and her family in Pittsburgh and sat with her during what would be her final days. She told me that she was so sorry that we didn't finish the book. I told her that I would finish it, no matter what.
In the difficult days and weeks after she passed, I put word out among Cindy's enormous network of loving (and very talented) friends that I needed help. Rebecca Webb, Jon Hicks, Chris Moeller, Marssy Benitez, Natalie Downe and Ari Stiles all jumped in. Drawing Cindy’s beloved animals became a tangible way for us to cope with her loss.
Over the coming months, the book finally started to take shape, bit by bit. Ari heroically jumped in with both feet and in addition to illustrating animals, also contributed her renowned skills as a book designer. Our friend Jeff Rider came up with the title. Meanwhile, I kept cranking out the verses, playing with different rhymes everywhere I went: on the subway, while walking through Manhattan, during every taxi ride.
And now: here we are. We finished it. The book is now officially available to purchase and all proceeds are going to Cindy's two beloved young sons.
We think Cindy would have loved this book, and we hope you will too. A lot of people put a lot of love into it, and I think that it shows.
- Juliette Melton, NYC, October 2019
