WHY KIDS + CLIMATE CHANGE? 

Climate change will shape our children's future - so why is it that there aren't any books on the subject that kids would actually want to read?

Children can make a powerful difference in the world! In the 1980s, the new blue bin recycling programs were failing all across the continent - until they introduced recycling education in elementary schools. 

We're trying to raise $5000 in funds to finance the illustration of the first book and launch the most important children's book since Dr. Seuss wrote the Lorax! Please help!

Book1: The Big Chase 

A rhyming children's story in which hungry monsters abduct two children, who outwit their captors in a series of harrowing escapes.

Equal parts Pippi Longstocking and Dr. Seuss, the Big Chase is a children’s story that re-invents folklore for the 21^st century to make climate change CRAZY INTERESTING for kids, and for the parents who read to them.

Featuring mesmerizing, hip illustrations and the page-turning pace of a Hollywood car chase. See for yourself! Download our EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEAK of the first half of Book 1 here. Just keep in mind that only a few pages have been professionally illustrated (that's what we need the funding for).

The first book is a joy to read aloud,like Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, and it's set in a near-future where a changing climate seems to be making life hard for people (AND monsters). 

Book2: Tales from the World of Tomorrow

 Once the first book gains a mainstream audience, the second book in the series reveals that climate change is the real villain. The young protaganists learn where it comes from, and how to fight it at home. In the second book, the characters find to their surprise that they have the courage and power to change the world. Children can make a powerful difference in the world!

Lovingly inked by acclaimed illustrator, Heiko Windisch

The Big Chase features gorgeous black and white illustrations from the strange and wondrous imagination of Heiko Windisch, lovingly crammed with one-eyed oddities and wry details. See heikowindisch.com and hypnowlempire.com for more of Heiko's brilliant work.

The illustration process is labor-intensive.

Why should I pre-order the book and/or original art?

We are a couple starving artists, brimming with talent but lacking in conventional funding and spread a wee bit too thin.

The $5,000 we seek to raise will go straight to paying Heiko, our artist, so he can work full-time and finish up the book's awesome illustrations. The book is around 64 pages and contains significantly more content than what we show here, so there's a LOT of illustrating yet to be done. 

We have some really cool rewards for our backers. Of course everyone gets a copy of the book when it's done, but we're also offering limited edition prints and original art that might eventually be collector's items!

We've gotten a long way already. We have a cleverly written, market-tested script, top-notch quirky character designs, a wild fantasy setting, and a kick-ass marketing plan that will bring the book in digital format to millions of young users of digital devices.

Share The Big Chase!

Please cajole your friends and co-workers into procuring a book or three, too! We need at least 200 people to buy the book to make our goal. You can do this by sharing our campaign on Facebook, Twitter, G+, etc.

Use the sharing functions at the top of this page to share our campaign with your friends. The top referrers for new visitors, new contributors and total funds will receive a mystery prize! 

MORE ABOUT THE BIG CHASE

Endorsed by kids

This is a hair-raising story of pursuit and near-misses that widens young eyes from the very first page, and holds their rapt attention to the satisfying conclusion. The proof is in the pudding: Whenever we read it aloud, children giggle and squeal all the way through, and then ask to be read it again. The monsters prove more bark than bite and fumble along as our young heroes outfox them in a mischevious climax.

Clever rhymes make it fun for parents, too

The Big Chase is partly inspired by spoken word and slam poetry - try reading aloud a few lines from the book to see why it works so well:

Then we heard the slap flap of dark wings in the night
and the ziz, it came flying much faster than fright.

Next the crazy chonchon with bright feathers for hair
and with fabulous ears flitting wild through the air

And the Huwawa giant with huge hands in the sky
came crashing and clutching, just missing us by...

THIS MUCH.

The Big Chase is written in anaepestic tetrameter, the rhyming device used by poets from Byron to Seuss which, according to Wikipedia, "produces a very rolling, galloping feeling verse" that will mesmerize kids and parents alike. 

Quirky characters rooted in folk tales from around the world

Powerful narratives draw their storytelling magic from ancient tales. So after painstaking research we’ve hand-picked the 10 quirkiest, most bizarre, most oddly-named monsters from real folk stories we could find: recruited across 6 continents and from unlikely oral traditions, medieval beastiaries, and a 10,000-year old epic. The result is a modern action thriller featuring an ancient cast of outrageous villains children won’t ever forget.

Meet the Monsters

That shack was the home of a very old witch and the beasts in that shack were a very strange mix.

There was: A ziz, and a squonk and a three-legged toad, and a were-crocodile whose red eyes glared and glowed...

A yowie, a chonchon, a big bonnacon, and poor Nellie long Arms whose arms were too long.

But I think we were lucky: that shack was too small for the most monstrous giant, the worst of them all: Hu-WA-WA

	Baba Yaga - A witch from Slavic tales, also known as Baba Jaga. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, she lives in a magic dancing hut that ends up pursuing the children through the woods. Heiko has illustrated Baba Yaga wearing authentic Świętokrzyskie folk dress from the mountains of Poland.
	Ziz - A giant, ancient bird from the forest of Ela who is said to be large enough to block out the sun with its wingspan. A tale from ancient Hebrew tradition.
	Squonk - The Squonk is a folk invention of 19th century American lumber-jacks, who told campfire stories about this unhappy, shy beast with misfitting warty skin - usually found whining in a puddle of its own tears. Heiko has illustrated our Squonk almost exactly as he is found in lumberjack folk drawings.
	Three-legged toad - Jin Chan is a huge toad monster in an- cient Chinese folklore whose ceramic miniature is now a staple in gong Fu tea ceremonies.
	Were-crocodile - In different parts of Africa, there are legends still told of men with the frightening power to turn themselves into crocodiles.
	Yowie - Oi, watch out for the YOWIE, mate.  An Australian version of a bigfoot, this huge ape-like creature was sighted by Aboriginal Australians and is still reported by visitors to the Outback. Heiko has illustrated our Yowie using an Aboriginal technique called "X-ray art" that shows internal anatomy.
	Chonchon - The chonchon might be one of the smaller monsters in The Big Chase, but it's also one of the zaniest. The Mapuche of Chile say that some men can send their heads away from their bodies to fly hideously about on feathered ears. Heiko has illustrated our Chonchon with an explosion of Central American feathers.
	Bonnacon - Ancient Romans and medieval Europeans believed this mythical Asian beast could throw burning dung great distances.
	Nelly Long Arms - An english tale told to children about a long-armed swamp creature who inhabits the bog near the Cheshire village of Wybunbury. Heiko has illustrated Nelly wearing a somewhat tattered Victorian bathing costume.
	Huwawa - A giant guardian of the ancient cedar forest in the Assyrian epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest story in history. Also known as Humbaba the Terrible. Heiko has illustrated the Huwawa's face based on ancient masks found at Sumerian and Assyrian sites, in which "his face is scribed in a single coiling line like that of the coiled entrails of men and beasts, from which omens might be read." [Wikipedia]