At first, my Indonesia author visits were full of monkey connections. I saw them everywhere…including at the Sacred Monkey Forest in Bali, where I took the picture of that highwire dancer. At this lovely library, the kids created their own water hole to go with my picture book, WATER HOLE WAITING, which features a monkey as main character. They also created a play with Indonesian animals as characters.
When we flew to Borneo, I spoke at a school where a few rescued orangutans were once housed right on the school compound. Out of that grew an orangutan rescue project that is still actively bustling. I was so moved and excited to see kids involved in such an ambitious and big-hearted project.
So…when I got back to the U.S. and found out that the American Girl team had been thinking about a girl who loves her world, you can see why I flew to Madison for the initial meeting carrying an orangutan tee-shirt from the school and with Power of One possibilities bubbling in my head.
