Nuts to You is a middle-grade (ages 8-12) novel; an adventure story about a squirrel. Two squirrels, really. No, three. Well, four main squirrels, and a bunch of others. I’m publishing this page of the website on August 26, 2014, the official release date for the book, but it’s a work-in-progress and I hope to add more to it over time.
Where did it come from? A few years ago, I was working on another project when the phrase “the squirrel who cried wolf” popped into my head. Out of nowhere. It made me laugh, and I wrote it down. A few weeks went by, and it still made me laugh, so I started making up a little story. And the story grew and grew.
I wanted the story to have drawings. I have drawn lots of people, and a fair number of dogs, but I had only drawn squirrels a couple of times. I wanted the drawings to be sort of cartoon-y, graphic novel-y:
Also, it wasn’t going to be the kind of book where the squirrels wore clothing, so it took me a little while to work out how to distinguish one squirrel from another:
I decided one squirrel could wear clothing, of a sort. An acorn beret:
That was Chai. Here’s how he looks in the drawings in the book:
Bit by bit, the drawings piled up. I have three big bulletin boards in my studio, and I pin drawings up on them as I do them:
Of course, there’s more to this book than pictures. There’s a story — a story about friendship and courage and adventure and danger. And friendship again. I had a lot of fun writing it. I hope you have a lot of fun reading it, too!
ATTENTION, ATTENTION! I made a little video about this book, which is right here.
Related Activities:
I hope to put lots more activities here in the months to come. For starters, here is a really interesting 4:22 TED talk video by Shubhendu Sharma on “How to grow a tiny forest anywhere.”
Okay, I’m having trouble getting the video to embed. So for the moment, the best bet might just be to search for “Shubhendu Sharma TED talk how to grow a tiny forest anywhere.”
More to come!
And here is a link to a blog post I made with a variety of squirrel and acorn-related activities.
Lynne Rae Perkins 
12 Comments
Post a commentI am looking forward to a good read as well as seeing those pictures on your board up close on pages! The story does
sound intriguing…
Looks amazing and inspiring Lynne … looking forward to completing my collection of your books!
thanks, Chris!
Thanks, dear Cecily!
Hi Lynne,
I wanted to take a moment to let you know how much we enjoyed Nuts to You! My son and I read it together, but he certainly did not wait for me, reading ahead each day (he is 8) and then letting me catch up each evening. We really enjoyed your writing style and approach and look forward to reading more in the future!
Thanks,
Rod
Thank you so much, I love to hear this!
I love, love, love Nuts to You! Thank you for writing this fun, informative, and inspiring book. You cover ecology, biology, and sociology to make the perfect cross-curricular book.
Hi. I just discovered your book and it looks wonderful. We are doing One School One Book in January 2016. Is the book due to come out in paperback before then?
Thank you,
Gail Hartman
Hi, Gail — I am not sure when the paperback release will happen. I need to ask my editor.
Ms. Banks,
Our entire school is going to read this book this year for One Book One School. We are looking for any activities others may have come up with to go along with the book. We certainly can create our own but thought we would ask others! Our school is a K-5 Elementary School. The book is a really great read and those of us who have read it, have enjoyed the story line a great deal! Thank you. I look forward to any activities we can get.
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