Ishkabibble and Kalamazoo Sunshine Umbrella
I’ve had the character names rattling around in my head for a very long time and about four years ago, realized that they matched my kids’ personalities very well. The unintentionally hilarious/adorable stuff that comes out of their mouths and how they interact inspired me to write the book. The name Ishkabibble is from Ish Kabibble, a Yiddish comedian and cornet player. Kalamazoo is from the big band hit ‘I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo’ by Glenn Miller.
As for the characters themselves, my autistic son came home from school one day and showed me two drawings he created for a superhero art project and I thought “Ah ha! This is what Ishkabibble and Kalamazoo look like!”
When I got serious about actually doing the book in 2022, I realized very quickly that my talents lie in words and not in drawing. I started looking around for an illustrator and stumbled onto Brandon Oliver at my previous job. And he brought not only drawing talent, but past experience in self-publishing as well. And over the a year and a half, we collaborated, discussed, reviewed, argued, agreed and then self-published on Amazon!
Outside of the story itself, there are several things to point out:
– The original pictures my son drew are hanging on the wall in their room.
– The toys are perfectly aligned on Ish’s side (aka my son) and strewn about on Kal’s side (aka my neurotypical daughter)…and also serve as hints for future book plots.
– If you look closely, you will see the letters EC on each page (for Ethan and Caitlyn). Hiding them within the drawings is an homage to Al Hirschfeld who wrote his daughter’s name Nina into every one of his illustrations.