Please welcome John Jamison, a.k.a. Pops Jamison, to Frog on a Blog. John is the author of several books for both children and adults. Today, he’s here to talk a bit about his Skwerdlock series for kids, which he also illustrates. What’s a Skwerdlock? Read on to find out.

It took me thirty-eight years to write Meet the Skwerdlock!. The idea appeared one very early morning as I sat in a rocking chair with my two-year-old sick daughter and made up a silly song about a funny looking dog called the Skwerdlock. I tried writing Meet the Skwerdlock! then, but it just didn’t work.

Over the years, I tried several more times to write the book, with no success. I talked with illustrators and had some very nice images created, but the Skwerdlock always looked like I did that Easter Sunday back in the third grade when they dressed me up in that white skirt and big red bow for the children’s choir. As nice as the pictures were, they just weren’t the Skwerdlock we knew. I couldn’t figure the book out. What was the Skwerdlock for? What did the book teach? What was the message? Why write the book?

Two years ago, my daughter’s three-year-old daughter asked what the Skwerdlock looked like. I got a piece of paper and pencil and started drawing the image from that old song. I drew ears like an elephant, a nose like a hog, and all the rest. I am not an artist, and my drawing was evidence of that fact. I started to toss it and try again when I heard the voice.

“You forgot my shoes,” the Skwerdlock said.

I drew some shoes.

“Aren’t you going to add some colors?” he said.

I got some watercolor paints. I didn’t stay inside the lines, and some of the pencil marks I hadn’t erased showed through the paints. It was nothing at all like the nice illustrations I had seen before, but, finally, it looked like the Skwerdlock.

“Now aren’t you going to write that book about that night we met?”

So I did. And then I wrote I Saw the Skwerdlock!, and have just finished Never Take the Skwerdlock to the Doctor!. I finally realized that the Skwerdlock wasn’t about looking perfect, and wasn’t about teaching a lesson or making a statement. The Skwerdlock thinks kids get enough of that. The Skwerdlock is just fun–an opportunity to escape from the pressures of growing up and learning, and just spend some time letting our imaginations dream about things that might be.

I illustrated the books with my own pictures. People sometimes point out that the colors go outside the lines, and there are pencil marks showing in places. I smile and tell them that’s exactly how the Skwerdlock looks, too. He is not perfect, and has smudges here and there, just like me. Meet the Skwerdlock! and the other Skwerdlock books are just an excuse to sit on someone’s lap in the recliner and smile.

John Jamison is a life-long believer in the power of stories. First as a pastor, then educator, creator of Centers for Innovation at multiple universities, Director of a national Game and Simulation academic degree program, and a consultant for e-learning and brand development, John has used the power of story to bring about serious change and have some fun in the process.

John grew-up in a small river-town in Illinois, and describes his childhood as “kind of Tom Sawyer-ish with a blend of Wizard of Oz.” John says, “I grew up in a family of storytellers and liars, and I spent most of my time trying to figure out which was which.”

Keep up to date with his books at https://jbjamison.jamisonbooks.com.