Hand Art

My 5-year-old daughter got a very cool art book for Christmas. It's about "hand art," in which you trace your hand in various poses, then glue on pompom noses & google-eyes (google eyes = Best Invention Ever!) and then color the whole thing in, to make an impressive variety of animals.

In this particular picture, we see the head of Champy, the Lake Champlain Monster. This impressive beast is featured in book 2 of my Boomer Sisters series (The Boomer Sisters Meet Champy). And ever since I wrote it, kids have been asking me to write more books about Champy. I've done some digging, and it's odd how few Champy books for kids there are, given a) how cool it is to have a Loch Ness Monster cousin living in NY and b) how much could be written about Champy and c) the enormous demand/market.

I wasn't planning to give Champy a big role in the next Boomer Sisters book (tentatively titled "The Boomer Sisters and the Pirates"), although the book will once again be set on Lake Champlain. I just might have to reconsider... but if I don't work Champy into this book, maybe I'll just write a whole new book (or series?) about the creature...