Little Girl Squirrel Watches TV a children's book by Michael A. King from BranchWood Books

Summary (also available by PDF flier): Little Girl Squirrel loves to watch TV. But there is no TV in her nest. What to do? She finds an old chipmunk tunnel. She uses it to get into PawPaw's basement where there is a TV. 

One night PawPaw finds her there. Now she's in trouble. She has to leave. But she begs and begs. Please please please. 

Finally she and PawPaw make a deal that lets hundreds of squirrels watch TV. But only at midnight. And PawPaw starts to understand the fun.

Illustrators Kadyn Hamilton-King and Maya Hamilton-King, the author's grandchildren, were the first to figure out what Little Girl Squirrel was up to and to give the clues that turned into this story. They drew and colored the drawings portraying Little Girl Squirrel’s stresses and joys.

Meanwhile the author’s boyhood in a Mennonite community where he could only watch TV at friends’ houses taught him why Little Squirrel thinks TV is magic—and why she shouldn’t watch all the time.

Comment: “I like that the girl squirrel climbed down a hole. And I like that girl who colored the drawings.” —Maja (age four), a supportive reader from the Mountain West, where plenty of Little Girl Squirrel’s extended family lives

Market: Anyone interested in a squirrel who loves to watch TV and what it takes to work out an hour of joyfully watching each midnight in PawPaw's basement.

Shelving: Children's fiction; squirrels; Anabaptist-Mennonite literature. 

The Author: Michael A. King, Telford, Pennsylvania, grandfather of six, is author of books and articles; blogger and editor, Kingsview & Co; and publisher, Cascadia Publishing House LLC. He has been a pastor and seminary dean. Years ago he found in a basement panel the hole Little Girl Squirrel uses  though possibly a chimpmunk or her parents were involved too. 

The Illustrators: Kadyn Hamilton-King and Maya Hamilton-King live in the Pacific Northwest but visit Little Girl Squirrel on the East Coast. 

Kadyn, who has been in PawPaw’s basement many a time, who was at PawPaw’s house the legendary Christmas holidays when Little Girl Squirrel’s mother or daddy first got into the basement, who knows precisely what it looks like, relays this expertise through his illustrations.

Maya has long inspirated Little Girl Squirrel stories by pleading for them. Maya loves Little Girl Squirrel’s determination to watch TV in PawPaw’s basement and has helped unearth the details of the story through requesting endless retellings while rejecting some versions and confirming others.chael A. King

Quote: “PawPaw looked at her. She really was awfully sad. He felt sad for her. He said, 'You may NOT live here, Little Girl Squirrel. But every night at midnight you can watch TV for an hour.'"

Publisher: Cascadia Publishing House LLC
Imprint: BranchWood Books
Copublisher: None
Publication date: April 2022
Approximate Pages: 28
Tentative Format: 8 x 8" trade paper, full color with illustrations
Prices: $10.95 US. ISBN 13: 978-1-68027-021-1; ISBN 10: 1-68027-021-4