Freckles is (Sort of) in a Book!

Freckles:

I'm in a book! Well, sort of. I mean, there's a picture of a rabbit that looks just exactly like me in a picture book. And Deb sort of knows the author/illustrator. Well, she knows his son. Okay, this is kind of a roundabout story. Here goes...(Try to keep up)

Deb went to a conference this summer and met a children's book author named Benjamin James Watson.  Ben's dad is a famous children's book illustrator named Richard Jesse Watson. (In fact the two of them wrote and illustrated a funny and wonderful picture book called The Boy Who Went Ape. Blue Sky Press, Scholastic Inc., 2008)

Deb's friend Rachel recently attended the Insland Empire Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators conference in Spokane, Washington where Richard Jesse Watson was one of the guest speakers.

What does any of this have to do with ME? I'm getting there...just hang on.

Rachel knew that Deb had met Ben, Mr. Watson's son, so when she picked up the dad's book The Magic Rabbit (Blue Sky Press, Scholastic, Inc., 2005), which he wrote AND illustrated, and she discovered that the character inside looked a lot like me, she bought the book and got Mr. Watson to autograph it. He not only autographed it "To Freckles and Deb" (notice that MY name came first!), but he also drew a great picture of the main character with a magic wand and top hat with stars and a moon coming out of it.

Here's the book:

Here's the autograph inside the front cover:

And, if you go to this page of Mr. Watson's website, you'll see an illustration from the book that shows me, or rather the bun that looks like me. (I'm the one on the left!)

Of course, we hadn't even started our blog when this book was published, but somehow Richard Jesse Watson knew exactly where to place the spots and attractive black mouth marking. Maybe he had a dream about me. Maybe he's psychic. Maybe it was magic!

Anyway, it's a terrific book. You see, there's this white rabbit who is magic and can do all of these tricks, but he is lonely. So, he tries to pull a friend out of his hat. But, each animal that he pulls out jumps or scurries or flies away. Then, he discovers a secret and TA DA he pulls the friend who looks like me out of the hat. They go off to have all kinds of adventures together (maybe they should start a blog! They could call it The Adventures of the Magic Rabbit and the Rabbit That Looks Just Like Freckles!)

Deb says that Ben (Mr. Watson's son, remember him?) wrote in one of his comments a while back here on our blog that his dad had drawn a bun that looked like me in a book. But, Deb didn't pay close enough attention like she should have and didn't run right out and buy the book so I could see. This will teach her to be more vigilent in the future!

Anyway, THANK YOU, Richard Jesse Watson for drawing such stunning and beautiful rabbits in The Magic Rabbit!  And THANK YOU for the stunning and beautiful autograph/picture! Deb and I shall treasure it forever!

And, all you rabbit lovers out there, run out right now and buy this book. YOU WILL LOVE IT! If they don't have it at the bookstore, ask them to order it for you. You might want to get extra copies. Christmas is coming and all the children in your life will love getting it as a gift.

And be sure that you point out to them the rabbit that looks just like me!