In going through my old sketches, I came across an early concept drawing I did for Adaa’s Story featuring Adaa the otter playing chess with an octopus. This was several years ago now, when I dreamed of Adaa’s Story being a creative and fanciful, slightly wacky book. I imagined Adaa being much more of a storybook character, doing human-like things; he would sneak around the aquarium at night, have a stuffed fish lovey that he would carry for comfort, and in his golden years entertain the other aquarium creatures with stories from his past. He would also play chess with the octopus, as shown in this rough sketch. The two would often enjoy a lunch of fish and chips from Ivars next door.
I was enchanted by this story. And when the world became too dark with Covid, I would drift into this world of anthropomorphic sea creatures. Everything about it brought me joy.
But no one would publish it.
One literary agent brought me to tears saying she would never touch it, and felt it would be a bad idea to work with me. She proclaimed that children don’t need more talking animals.
So I took away the toys, and the scarves, and the chess games, and the magic of fiction, and placed my story in reality. Strict reality, with otters being otters.
I love my book. It’s true- Otters don’t need to be turned into little humans in order to be cute and interesting. But I do think there is an alternate path where my book was more of an imaginative re-thinking of the history through a fictional storybook lens.
In a world of often hard realities, I think there is still a place for talking animals in children’s picture books. As I think about my next possible book and what it might look like, the world of chess playing sea creatures is still calling. The question is, does anyone actually was to go there with me? 
