One Frog, Two Frogs, Three frogs, Four

I'm often asked where I get ideas for my books. Sometimes they just pop into my head -- in the shower or while running -- and sometimes they come to me in a dream. And sometimes I'm inspired by real life. Such was the case with this story, "One Frog, Two Frogs, Three Frogs, Four."

My oldest son, Zach, collected these colorful plastic tree frogs. He'd cart them around in his big, yellow dump truck. Using his Fisher-Price Wild West Town and Pirate ship he'd pretend they were cowboys and pirates. Sometimes, he'd stack pillows on the couch and the frogs would scale the pillow mountain to defeat the evil emperor.