FINALLY! A RECOUNT!!!! YOU GET to VOTE on EACH of THESE: this is the First of Five+ Concepts For Children's Books

Here is a link to my kickstarter project, which if I am funded, I will be able to proceed with the first printing of my upcoming children's book. But are the metaphorical girls in this picture really smiling full smiles yet? No. This is unfinished art. Let me explain further.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mugword/year-of-writing-and-illustrating-my-first-children

So I am going to feature at least 5 main concepts for the children's book, all of which are stirring in my head, and production will be possible for any of them. And I am going to let you - my reader - vote on which one you think is best.

Then I will let that influence my ultimate decision but I will go my own way.

This post will take more than one day to post, and really might come out as at least 5 posts. So keep checking back y'all!

AND without further adieu, the beginning of one of these ideas. (This is the fun fiction oriented one that likely will take your child on an adventure away from their current place.) (PS Thanks to Anna, my older sister, who always used to play act this game with me when we were kids, and she made up most of it!)

Author’s Note: I am thirty five years old. When I was ten in 1992, my parents looked very seriously into the idea of moving our family to Costa Rica, where he thought about working in the Monteverde Friends School. I ended up getting to spend 3 and a half months in Monteverde, during two trips, at 18 and 33 years old. As a writer, I know the importance of telling a story from many perspectives. This story is an extrapolation/ adaptation of a style of play my siblings and I used to enjoy as children. What follows is a story for children, that will talk about this magical place so far away. If you are an adult, or a child interested in fund raising, Monteverde Friends School is collecting funds for student tuition and for rebuilding and restoring after Tropical Storm Nate, which washed out a crucial bridge but brought together community in response to the challenges.

The Jungle Team

for Anna

Deep in the Busque Nubosa,
the cloud forest preserve of Costa Rica,
three howler monkeys swing through high branches
to come together just underneath a canopy bridge
built by Quaker humans who have live here too.

The first monkey to arrive is Jose monkey.
He has the longest arms.
His little sister Maritza gets there second
even though she is really young.
Ana monkey arrives eight minutes later.

She has been on the trail of something.
“Wild boar scat!”
Announces Ana.
Maritza groans.
Is Ana going to start sniffing poop?

Ana does tend to be an extreme kind of naturalist.
“Sometimes you have to examine scat to know
what it’s from and what it
had for dinner.”
Ana seems to read her mind.

Jose has started howling.
They are howling monkeys and
this is usually typical
behavior for them all.
But Ana runs over and muffles his mouth.

“You’re going to call the wild boars!”
From the canopy,
most observers might predict wild boars are harmless.
But they actually ram their heads into trees.
Which is what was about to happen.

It was Jose who howled,
but Maritza who would fall,
tumbling through the branches
of the tall strangler figs
and the oak trees they were strangling there.

Jose and Ana watched their little sister
slip between the branches
grasping for something to hold onto
ripping off ferns and epiphites
but nothing was strong enough.

All the way down,
Maritza plummeted
until she got to the last
limb so tired and scratched up
wounded by the fall.

Jose and Ana swung lower to help her
scurry away from the boars
which Maritza was deathly afraid of.
The boars tried to get Maritza,
but Jose and Ana helped her.

Actually, it was Jose who thrust Maritza
over his shoulder
and brought her high up to
their parent’s nest in the trees.

“Well Maritza, that’s what happens when
you don’t listen to me!” Ana grieved.
Sheltered by their parents,
the children listened to their parents
Adra and Airol who whispered back and
forth about the tragic wounds.

“It’s going to take a miracle to heal Maritza.”
Said Adra.
Airol agreed saying, “the only way
to heal her injuries will be
rainbow juice which is impossible to come by.
I don’t know what we will do!”

Ana had an idea.
Ana loved to read and learn
all she could about the natural world.
Immediately she woke Jose, needing his help.
“We have to go now.”
Ana told her brother Jose.
Jose was sleeping and
he needed a little convincing.

“It’s to help Maritza,”
Ana whispered.
“I have no idea how to find rainbow juice.
All the books say it is a medicine of dreams.
But Juanilama might do the trick if we gather enough.
It’s a medicinal plant.”

Jose was a bit tired of the situation at home
and so he set out with Ana
to find Juanilama or whatever.
He was concerned about Maritza.

...to be continued