I learned a long time ago that when stories come to you, you need to let them. If you say you’re busy and you’ll get to it later, the story will go away and it won’t come back. It will find someone else.
The upstairs armadillo had waited a long time for someone in my family to tell his story. So I sat down at the computer and began to write. This book and the others in the Upstairs Armadillo Series are the result.
My mother was the first one who saw the upstairs armadillo, but these aren’t the stories she shared with me. That was many years ago. The upstairs armadillo has had many new adventures since then. These are the stories he shared with me.
I wrote the first one soon after my tree sat down on my house. That was in the fall of 2020. Then things got busy. Over the winter I started writing “Modern Horse Training“. That took up all my writing time for the next year. “Modern Horse Training” was published in the spring of 2022. By then I was in the midst of designing my on-line clinics to fit into a post covid world, but I was eager to get back to the Upstairs Armadillo. I knew he was waiting – not all that patiently for me. He wasn’t hiding in my sock drawer, but I knew as soon as I started writing again, he’d make himself known.
I had so much fun writing “Never Get A Wizard Mad At You” that I began book two almost at once. And that lead to books three and four which were even more fun to write. I probably would have raced on to book five at that point, but the horses were calling and I needed to finish the Kenyon Bear series. “Wishing Well Magic” still needed to be illustrated. That took the better part of 2024. “Wishing Well Magic” came out earlier this year. So now it’s finally time for the Upstairs Armadillo to make an appearance.
“Never Get A Wizard Mad At You” is Book one in the Upstairs Armadillo series. You can order it on my web site: theclickercenter.com. And of course it is also available through Amazon and other on-line book sellers.
When you visit my web site, go to the tab for Bear Hollow Press. That’s where you’ll find all my children’s books.
The Kenyon Bear Books are chapter books with lots of pictures. The Upstairs Armadillo books are longer chapter books. Think Paddington Bear, Knight’s Castle, Green Smoke, and of course C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books and you’ll have the right age range.
I hope you’ll share them with the young readers in your life. And do please leave a five star review to help others find the books.
Never Get A Wizard Mad At You Book One in the Upstairs Armadillo Series
I am delighted to announce that I have a new book out.
My mother was the first one to see Charles Alexander and the upstairs armadillo. I don’t remember how old I was when she first told me about them, maybe six or seven. It was before we converted the attic over the garage into a bedroom. I remember that because we used the attic as a painting studio. I drew dragons, wonderful fiery red, fierce dragons, while my mother told me stories about Charles Alexander and the upstairs armadillo. They lived in her house when she was little.
That was many years ago. Fast forward to 2020, the covid year. In October my area was hit by a wind storm that went on for hours. One of the trees behind my house got tired and sat down. Unfortunately, when the tree sat down, it lost it’s balance and fell against my house. It took the roof out. I came home in the evening to find it’s branches poking into my office and the rain pouring in. What a mess!
Everything had to be taken out. Most of the furniture was beyond saving, but somehow the stacks of papers and boxes of files that were stored in that room escaped unharmed.
When I was sorting through them, I found a large envelop that I had forgotten I had. It must have been twenty years or more since I had last seen it. It contained a story my mother had written about the upstairs armadillo and Charles Alexander.
I read the story. It wasn’t very long. It was really just the beginning of a story. That night I fell asleep thinking about the upstairs armadillo and Charles Alexander. In the morning I began writing.
I learned a long time ago that when stories come to you, you need to let them. If you say you’re busy and you’ll get to it later, the story will go away and it won’t come back. It will find someone else.
The upstairs armadillo had waited a long time for someone in my family to tell his story. So I sat down at the computer and began to write. This book and the others in the Upstairs Armadillo Series are the result.
They aren’t the stories my mother told me. That was many years ago. Charles Alexander and the upstairs armadillo have had many new adventures since then. These are the stories they shared with me.
“Never Get A Wizard Mad At You” is Book one in the Upstairs Armadillo series. You can order it on my web site: theclickercenter.com. And of course it is also available through Amazon and other on-line book sellers. On Amazon the book is available as an ebook through kindle unlimited. That means for kindle subscribers you get to read the book for free. If you’re curious about the sort of children’s books that I write, this is a great way to find out.
I love the Upstairs Armadillo stories. I hope you’ll share them with the young readers in your life. And do please leave reviews for the books so others can find them.
This blog is about clicker training horses. That’s what you expect to see here, so why am I writing about children’s books? The easy answer is everything is connected to everything else.
I’m guessing many of you reading these posts have read C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books.
My favorite quote from Lewis is this:
“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly.” C.S. Lewis
I don’t know how old I was when I first read that quote, probably eight or nine. I have remembered it always because I never stopped reading children’s books.
I was three the first time Lewis’ “The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe” was read to me. Four when Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” was read to me. The magic in those books wound it’s way into my heart and has remained there always.
Another great quote from Lewis is this one: “No book is really worth reading at the age of 10 which is not equally – and often far more – worth worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.“ C.S. Lewis
These days the world is in a terrible muddle. Everywhere you look in the news there is conflict, there are disasters, there is such great sadness. So another great quote from C.S. Lewis is Puddleglum’s speech to the Witch Queen of the Underland, in Chapter 12 of “The Silver Chair”. Those of you who are familiar with the books will know who Puddleglum is. He’s a Marsh Wiggle, a creature who always believes that the gloomiest, worst possible outcome is also the most likely. For those of you who haven’t yet read Lewis’ children’s books, he is one of the great characters in all literature.
Puddleglum from “The Silver Chair”
Here’s the quote:
“One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world that licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.” C.S. Lewis: Puddlegum’s speach to the Witch-Queen of Underland in Chapter Twelve: The Queen of the Underland – The Silver Chair.
When I was little we had duck and cover drills in school in the event of a nuclear bomb. Nowadays, students have duck and cover drills in case there’s an active shooter in their school. The threats have come closer and become more real. It’s a grim world. So I’m with Puddleglum. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.
That’s the connection between clicker training horses and children’s books. It’s the connection between the magic of being able to talk to our horses and the reality of clicker training.
When I was little, there were never enough of the kind of books I loved to read. I read the Narnia series over and over again, but I wanted more, so I began to write my own stories. I have a collection of them tucked away that I am have begun to publish.
I’ve begun with the Kenyon Bear Books. The first book, “Teddies to the Rescue” was written in 1985 and was published originally in 1986. It began as a Christmas present for my mother.
In 2023 I reissued the book. “Teddies” is a chapter book with pictures. My illustrator, Mark Kenyon was a gifted artist. His mother made the bears, so yes, there was a family connection with Kenyon Bear.
When we were first talking about creating a book, we discovered that we were both drawn to the pen and ink drawings from our favorite books that we read when we were little. These are not modern books with characters looking like they came from a Disney movie. These are books for children (and adults) who love to dream.
From “Teddies To The Rescue”
“Teddies to the Rescue” is book 1 in the series. Next came “Edgar the Bear Who Wanted to be Real”, and “Sara’s Story, the Bear Nobody Wanted”. Those were the original Kenyon Bear Books published in the 1980’s.
Last year I added “Kenyon Bear’s Christmas” with drawings by Christa Culbert.
And now finally, I am delighted to be adding “Wishing Well Magic” to the series.
Sue Hall, a long time client and friend did the drawings. So I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Kenyon and the rest of the bears imagined by four different artists. Each one has brought their own sense of whimsy and magic to the drawings to create a world children will love.
If you have little ones you are reading to, these chapter books make great bedtime stories. If you are giving them to a young reader, don’t be surprised if you find the book tucked under their pillows as they fall asleep. That’s where all the favorite books belong.
So do visit my web site, theclickercenter.com or order them on-line through Amazon. Help me turn “Wishing Well Magic” and all the other Kenyon Bear Books into best sellers.
It’s winter. The horses like this time of the year. No flies. No summer heat, just long naps with the winter sun warming their backs.
Winter is a time for dreaming, a time for stories. It is the perfect time for “Edgrr the Bear Who Wanted to be Real”
The new book will be published Feb 1 2024
That’s the new children’s book. Today is January 28 and I am celebrating my other new book, “Modern Horse Training” at this year’s Clicker Expo Live. I started my day with a Book Nook conversation with Ken Ramirez. What a pleasure and what an honor to talk about the book with Ken.
A screenshot taken during the Book Nook conversation with Ken Ramirez at the Clicker Expo Live.
You can learn more about all my book at my web site: theclickercenter.com
My new book, “Edgrr the Bear Who Wanted to be Real”, is coming!
Edgrr was originally published in 1987, a year after my first children’s book, “Teddies to the Rescue” was published. “Sara” came out the following year. After that horses demanded more and more of my time. I was already teaching and training. There wasn’t time for everything so the bears found their way, as so many bears do, to a back corner of my life. They weren’t forgotten or set aside. They simply had to wait for their turn to come again.
Bears can be very patient, much more patient it seems than the many horses who were demanding that I pay attention TO THEM. Never mind all those silly children’s books They wanted me to write something IMPORTANT about them.
So I did. I began with “Clicker Training for your Horse” followed by “The Click That Teaches: A Step By Step Guide in Pictures” and “The Click That Teaches: Riding with the Clicker”. That was just for starters. I don’t know how tens of thousands of emails and internet posts I have written. Then there were the DVDs, the conference presentations, the on-line courses, and the Equiosity podcast. In 2023 I published my newest horse book: “Modern Horse Training.”
I’ve written a lot of words that have gotten a lot of attention. I’m not alone in speaking out on behalf of horses. Horses today have a much louder voice. They are being listened to by people all around the planet.
It’s amazing what happens when people start to listen. Horses begin to feel less pushy. They can relax – a little – and let others have some attention.
In my case that means I get to invite you to
“Teddies To The Rescue” was first. The new edition came out in August of 2023. “Edgrr” will be published on February 1 2024.
You can order both books through my web site: theclickercenter.com
Or you can get them through Amazon. You can order Edgrr on Amazon after Feb 1 2024.
Read them to the little ones in your life. Read them to your horses. Horses like it when you share time together. Or simply read it for your own enjoyment while you remember the magic from your own childhood.
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