I'd like to tell you a little bit about my new book, LITTLE DEVILS-

It all began when I moved to Australia. I knew I was going to live there for two years and couldn't wait to start drawing the interesting landscape and animals.

The first thing I needed was an artists' studio. I found a place on Small Street, in a town called Hampton. I liked the name SMALL STREET. It seemed the perfect name for a children's book author/illustrator's workplace!

Think of all the interesting animals in Australia- wombats, echidnas, platypus, Tasmanian Devils, and kangaroos, just for a start. I headed right out to the Yarra Valley to meet some wild kangaroos.

While I was out drawing in the countryside I saw echidnas (kind of a porcupine anteater) and platypus. This is what they look like.

I stayed at a place called Kingbili and met Charlie the kangaroo and Tonka the wombat. They were good friends, but sometimes Tonka pulled tricks on Charlie and they'd chase each other. I began to think that a kangaroo or a wombat book would be very fun to make.

Then someone told me about the Tasmanian Devils that lived free and in the wild only on an Australian Island called Tasmania. "Hmmmm," I thought, "Tasmanian Devils could be interesting." Here is my first ever drawing of a Tasmanian Devil.

Next, I heard about some beasts called "Yowies" that sounded very much like the American Bigfoot creature. I think a Yowie might look like the drawing above. Wombats, platpus, echidnas, kangaroos, Tasmanian Devils, Yowies- there were a lot of interesting animals in Australia and maybe I could make a book about one. I'd met wombats, platypus,echidnas, and kangaroos. I needed to see a Yowie.

I went to western Australia, to the north, and to the east and could not find a single Yowie to draw. I was still interested, but not sure I could find one. Still, I kept the creature on my list of possible characters for a book. Please note that this guy is NOT a Yowie.

There are many different marsupials in Australia. We have only one in America- the opossum. Does anyone know what a marsupial is? Oh, I am pretty sure that a Yowie is not a marsupial.

I decided to ask my readers which Australian animal they would like me to make a book about. So I posted a list on my web site and asked them to vote. Here's the list: 1) Kangaroos 2) Echidnas 3) Wombats 4) Platypus 5) Tasmanian Devils 6) Yowies I got over 1,000 votes and Tasmanian Devils narrowly beat out kangaroos. All right, then, my next book was to be about Tasmanian Devils. I began to read up on them and made a list of interesting facts.

If you press on the number 2 below, you can go to the next page about LITTLE DEVILS!