First Friday Fun Facts – January

by Brianarowens, posted in book release, Everglades National Park, FunFactFriday, National Parks

Know what you can count on this year? FUN FACTS! The first Friday of each month I will be posting fun facts. These facts might correlate to current illustrations I am working on, fun animal facts, fun plant facts, or something fun about me…maybe a post containing all of the above!

This first ‘FIRST FRIDAY FUN FACT’ is about the beginning stages of Baby Ranger Books. The idea came to me while living in the Everglades. I biked hundreds of miles while living there. I counted lots and lots of alligators on those bike rides, and while it was fun pointing out alligators to others biking, I most enjoyed learning about the birds.

Everglades National Park sign – shadow of me biking – Great Blue Heron (my favorite bird) – Full moon bike ride covered for insect protection – Egret – Purple Gallinule- Roseate Spoonbill – biking with a storm rolling in – Anhinga drying its wings

Families biking the loop at Shark Valley would stop and watch the birds but not know what they were looking at. It was always fun to share what I was learning, I enjoyed sharing with the little kiddos the most. It was fun watching their eyes light up when I’d point out a bird that was hiding, or tell them how big of a fish an Anhinga can swallow whole!

That’s when the wheels started turning. I have always enjoyed drawing… I’d spend hours in my room growing up, just drawing. Every week I checked out new how-to-draw books from the library and, before choosing a career in landscaping, had always wanted to be a children’s book illustrator. I had recently started drawing digitally and was enjoying it again. Could this become something?

FUN FACT: Baby Ranger started as a simple little stick figure holding a Park Ranger Hat (aka flat hat). I had no intention of Baby Ranger becoming a character in the books… it was going to be more of an identification of it being an educational nature book. Kind of like being able to recognize a Little Golden Book by the gold spine.

I started drawing birds. Then looked at the alphabet and birds of the Everglades together. Hmmmm. Once I had my initial illustrations drawn, I printed small 4×4 pictures, put them together with double-sided sticky tape, and created a ‘book’. It felt so good to hold a ‘product’ in my hand. -It’s laughable now, but I am never going to get rid of it! (and I am NOT one to save things!) Enjoy the collage of pictures below – from concept to TOP-SELLING Baby Ranger Book.

the first concept of a book cover with a stick figure Baby Ranger – my makeshift printed book – horizontal book concepts – and the white background first published version of the book – and lastly, the final product with the blue background that was updated in 2023

Hope you enjoyed the small glimpse into where it all began!

Have you read ABC birds EVERGLADES? If you have, consider leaving a short review on Amazon to help others find the book –>click here<–

If you would like to purchase your own copy, you can click –>here<–

AS ALWAYS – GET OUTSIDE – GO ON AN ADVENTURE!