TITLES: Flippy and Toadpole, On the Flippy Side, Through Flippy’s Eyes, Flippy Goes on a Road Trippy
AUTHORS: John Mese and Dawn Kelsey
ILLUSTRATOR: Chanler Holden
PUBLISHER: Moss Covered Gumbo Barn
PUBLICATION DATES: 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009
GENRE: Children’s Board Books, Children’s Books
AUTHOR GUEST POST…In 2002 my girlfriend, (now, my wife), and I were driving across the country from California to Louisiana for her to meet my family. We started the trip one day after visiting The Los Angeles Zoo. While we were at the zoo we had been calling all the little cute animals that did tricks, “Flippy.” The next few days on the road we started to come up with an idea for a character named Flippy, who could turn into anything. When we arrived in Louisiana, the first place we stopped was The Garden District Nursery, which is owned and operated by my family. We were standing in front of a small pond talking to my brother when Dawn and I noticed about a hundred tadpoles swimming in the water. We both smiled and thought, of course, Flippy the Tadpole.
After the trip home, I sat down and wrote out all of the ideas we had talked about, and our first book began to take shape. We showed the initial drawings to an illustrator friend of ours in Baton Rouge, who immediately sent us her interpretations of Flippy the amazing tadpole who can turn into anything! By the way, that’s the overall theme of our series: “You can be anything!” We decided, then and there, to listen to our own advice and we became the publishers of an entire series of children’s books.
We printed 2000 copies of the first book, Flippy and Toadpole, and within a years time we were sold out. Our readers kept asking us for another book, and let me tell you newborns and 3-year-olds can be very persuasive, so we decided we would try to create a BOARD BOOK TRILOGY.
Our first book, Flippy and Toadpole ends with the line, “Whew, what a ride! Catch you on the Flippy side!” And we thought what a great name for the second book: On the Flippy Side. Each book is a collection of pictures of Flippy turning into all kinds of crazy things that rhyme, mixed with positive ideas like turn your frown up side down, and you can be anything! The last line of On the Flippy Side is, “So remember, whenever you need a smile of extra large size…Just look at the world through Flippy’s eyes.
Through Flippy’s Eyes became our third and final board book and it continues in the tradition of the first two by sharing “the glass is half-full” philosophy and many more funny and wonderful illustrations.
So that’s the story of how Flippy and Friends children’s books came to be. The next time you give a gift to a newborn, toddler, or small child, think about giving them a book…and reading it to them! What better gift can you give a child then the gift of laughter, and a love of reading!? Enjoy the ride!
Peace, John Mese
Purchase Links… Barnes & Nobles – Borders – Amazon
Author Website… www.flippyandfriends.com
Facebook Fan Page… http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flippy-and-Friends-Childrens-Books/37574899474?ref=ts
ABOUT THE AUTHORS…John Mese is a professional actor and has been so for the past 20 years. He has played roles on, Law & Order, Weeds, Sex and the City, Monk, CSI, CSI: NY, From the Earth to the Moon, Ghostwhisperer, Bones, Medium, The X-files, and Matlock to name a few. Dawn Kelsey teaches Communication Studies at California State University at Long Beach where she is also the Student Advisor for the Communication Studies Department.
FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…John Mese & Dawn Kelsey are on of the sponsors of The Book Faery Reviews 2 Year Blog Anniversary sponsors. They’ve provided all 4 Flippy books for one of our lucky winners.
