Benjamin & Honka’s Backyard Adventure follows a young boy who forms a sweet friendship with a woodland duck and learns important lessons about caring for animals. Where did the idea for this story come from?

The real-life inspiration behind the story came about when we moved into a house which was closer to the local creek. We would walk along the trails beside the creek just about every second day and notice there were a lot of ducks, birds, and other wildlife hanging around. I felt like I was in heaven, as I’m a huge nature & animal lover.

Every morning I would sit on the back porch eating my breakfast when one day I had a solo duck fly into the backyard, he was a very friendly duck and he used to follow me around the garden as I watered all my plants after a while I thought to myself that this duck wasn’t making any sound until one day I decided to feed the cute little guy and afterwards he would try to quack to thank me, but instead of a quack he’d let out a Honk, it was the cutest thing I’d ever heard, we soon became friends as he started to honk more and more while following me around so I decide that I would name him Honka. There were some days when I didn’t see him, and I was worried, but another time he brought a littler duck with him, which I named Baby. This is how the second book was created. So most of the story is some of my everyday experiences in the backyard/creek. I hope this has given you some insight into why I created the stories.

Honka has a lot of personality while still feeling like a real animal. How did you strike that balance?

Well, I simply just wrote about what I saw him do, like when he went swimming in the pond, he would dive under to search for food, he’d follow me around the backyard when I would attend to my plants, he would also tap on my back door window, which I found quite funny.

Do you see the story as mainly about friendship, or about helping children notice and respect the natural world around them?

I think a bit of both, as I feel that teaching children to respect and learn about wildlife, and while forming friendships through interaction.

If children remember one thing from Benjamin’s time with Honka, what do you hope it is?

I would hope that it would be Honka and Benjamin playing around in the pond together, but maybe more importantly, it would be about the lesson that Benjamin’s mom teaches him, the importance of feeding ducks the right food.

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