This Feels Like My First Book, a guest post by Jeffrey Ebbeler

This is my new book Jerry, Let Me See the Moon. It feels like my first book…

It’s not.

I’ve been illustrating and writing books for almost 20 years. You might say that this is my first book with lots of words. Every book I’ve written so far has been 32 pages long and under a thousand words.  But that’s not the only reason why this feels like my first book.

The idea for Jerry started with a game about werewolves that I used to play with my older brother Jim when we were little. One of us would be Jerry (I have no idea where that name came from). Jerry’s objective was to block the windows and keeps the curtains closed. The other person would play the werewolf. A meek child with a high squeaky voice who innocently yearned to look out at the night sky. 

“Come on Jerry, let me see the moon,” I’d whine. Of course, if I did manage to catch sight of the moon, that squeaky voice turned into a deep growl, followed by plenty of chasing and raucous wrestling.

Years later I attended art school. I kept a notebook of story ideas, most of them based on childhood memories. I sent out sent out illustration samples and stories to publishers for years until I got my first big break in 2004. I got a call from Holiday House editor Mary Cash to illustrate a book called Punxsutawney Phyllis, written by Susanna Leonard Hill. Mary has been instrumental in all the big moments in my career, from publishing the first picture book that I wrote and illustrated to encouraging me to create a series of graphic novels, and now my first middle grade novel.

However, Jerry’s story did not start out as a novel. It was a long journey from that scribble in my college notebook, to what it became. I first attempted writing Jerry, Let Me See the Moon when my twin daughters were little. I wrote it as a rhyming picture book. A boy named Jerry moves to a new town that appears normal, although everyone is a little bit quirky and unusual. He discovers that evening that the residents of the town are all were-people, who turn into a variety of human-sizes animals. Then Jerry learns:

“That all the town’s folk, your friends to your teachers,

the mayor, and firemen, doctors and preachers,

were brought here because of the same common features.

We’re all different kinds of exotic were-creatures.

Like Mrs. Mc Fleet, who lives down the street,

Might be a were-parrot or a were-parakeet.

My best friend Amanda?

Why, she’s a were-panda.

And Arnold Dilancy?

A rare were-chimpanzee.”

I sent the picture book manuscript out to publishers, but it wasn’t ever picked up. Meanwhile my daughters were getting older. We started reading early chapter books together. I had been thinking for a while that Jerry’s story could be longer and more involved. I had never written anything longer than a picture book, but I decided to take the plunge and give it a try.

Author Michelle Houts graciously read my first few drafts and gave me some invaluable advice. Primarily, that the subject matter and tone of the story was more suited for a middle grade novel. That meant writing more words. A lot more words. Like, 40,000 more words!

So I did. Over the course of a year, I wrote and rewrote. That little nugget of an idea about a town full of were-people turned into a whole cast of quirky characters. 

Jerry is a lonely, awkward boy who has spent his life traveling to remote, far-flung places for his father’s scientific research. He is underwhelmed when his father moves them to the gated, cookie-cutter community of Fort Phylum, Ohio. He gradually begins to realize that the people in this town are were-creatures. Not only that, but they are also refugees who have been gathered to this sanctuary city. The towns folk become mysteriously stuck partially transformed, a cryptid hunter arrives unexpectedly, and Jerry and his new friends, Pearl (the were-squirrel) and Avery (the were-magpie) are thrust into danger and intrigue above and far beneath the town. 

Half of the fun of writing this story, was imagining how the characters personalities are affected by the animals that they transform into. Like a librarian who compulsively eats his books because he is a were-moth, a family of were-squirrels who bury all their possessions in the back yard, or a trio consisting of a were-turtle, were-sloth and were-snail who spend the entire book traversing a single neighborhood block.

When I finally thought everything was just right, I printed the story out, and packed the inch thick stack of paper in a suitcase. My family and I took a trip to New York City. My daughters were in middle school by then and, they had both read and approved of the new version of Jerry. 

Mary Cash gave my family and I a tour of the Holiday House office in the heart of the Wall Street Financial District. We went to lunch at a restaurant that George Washington had once eaten. As we were saying goodbye, I handed Mary my giant stack of paper. 

I said something like, “I have no idea if this is any good, but would you be willing to take a look at it.”

It turns out that she thought it was pretty good, but it took another year or so of completely rewriting most of the story to get everything right. I’ve really come to love the complex puzzle of weaving plot points and characters together in exciting ways. Above all, I wanted to make this book as fast paced as I could and pack it with funny, expected twists.

And then there’s the illustrations. This book has a lot of them. About 150. I couldn’t help myself. Illustration is my first love, and I have been picturing all of these scenes in my head for so long. I had to draw them all.

My daughters are in high school now, but this book is finished! I am not going to rewrite it as a YA novel or wait until they are adults and make it into an epic fantasy trilogy. Over the last nineteen years I have illustrated and sometimes written over sixty books, but in a way, this book really is my first book. I started making up this story with my brother when I was in middle school, and it’s taken all these years to finally finish it. I hope you like it, and I hope I can write my next book a little faster.

Please visit my web site jeff@jeffillustration.com

Please check out the book trailer:

and First Chapter Read-Aloud:

Meet the author

Jeffrey Ebbeler has been creating art for children for over 20 years. He attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati. He worked as an art director at a publisher in Chicago designing books and paper engineering pop-up books.

Since becoming a full-time illustrator, he has created art for over 60 books including James Patterson’s New York Times best seller Laugh Out Loud. His graphic novels include I’m Ogre It, Wait a Minotaur, A Giant Mess, and Kraken Me Up, which was named an ALA Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table Best Graphic Novel for Children.

He lectures in grade schools, colleges and museums about the process of bringing words to life through pictures. Jeffrey, and his wife and twin daughters currently live in Cincinnati, Ohio.

About Jerry, Let Me See the Moon

Things get squirrely when Jerry discovers that his new town is a sanctuary for were-creatures, humans who turn into animals when the moon is full, in an action-packed romp for younger middle grade readers.

Jerry has serious questions about the town his scientist father drags him to: why did they give up traveling the world to settle down in such a strange spot? Why won’t his dad talk about his mysterious research or explain what happened to his mother, who disappeared years ago? And when he sees his friend Pearl transform into a were-squirrel under the light of the full moon, he needs to know: were exactly has he ended up?

But when criminal mayhem turns Jerry’s town—a safe haven for were-creatures—into a not-so-safe haven, Jerry must uncover a twisty conspiracy and take down the instigators who are trying to tear the place that’s become his home apart.

Packed with twists and turns and filled with vivid black-and-white drawings, Kraken Me Up author Jeffrey Ebbeler’s experience as a comics artist translates into dynamic, visual action sequences that even the most reluctant readers won’t have to fight their way through. Larger-than-life bad guys and slapstick humor meets a heartfelt exploration of what makes a place home in this page-turner that will leave younger middle grade readers howling for more.

ISBN-13: 9780823453092
Publisher: Holiday House
Publication date: 05/07/2024
Age Range: 8 – 12 Years

Filed under: Guest Post