Roo-hoo! We're off to the Yucatan! (By book anyway...)

Jean Johnson has been hard at work creating some fun travelling adventures with some very cool facts for your little ones!

The title I recently picked up was Rynnie Roo and Tater, too! Yucatan. It was a fun book.

Rynnie Roo and Tater Tot, the parakeet, love to explore together. While they are travelling, they uncover fun facts about animals, plants, languages, and even how to use our manners! Bright illustrations punctuate the book. 

I had the chance to get to know Jean a little bit better and this is what I found out!

Jean was actually raised in the Yucatan jungle, in the Mayan village of Senor. She had some very exotic pets growing up her including jaguars, an anteater and a sloth.

Jean felt the push to step into writing when her granddaughter was born. She thought about how different her granddaughter's childhood would be to her own. So Jean decided to create a world where she could share her own adventures and experience in a fun way.

Jean's granddaughter is a redhead who always has a big red bow in her hair and so Rynnie Roo the Kangaroo is modelled on her.

Jean's grandson was the inspiration for Tater Tot the Parakeet (who almost ended up being a PARROT!) 

The format of her stories was to help with learning. Jean struggled with school when she was younger and found that a story format made it more fun and engaging when it came to facts.

Jean has some experience with marketing and advertising which helped give her to the tools and experience to create and build the books she writes. She does all her own storyboards and designs, but she did commission her main characters.

There are several Rynnie Roo adventures out there but when asked what is next there was laugher. Currently working on the Zona Maya but plans to cover all 50 of the United States in time! That's a lot of travel for a kangaroo and a parakeet!

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Some fun facts that will make this super-woman more human:

• Jean is a mystery buff who loves Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Her favourite TV programs are "Murder She Wrote", "Perry Mason", and even some Charlie Chan...
• She loves to listen to 1940s music while driving in her car

With all that said, Jean joked she should be writing period pieces and not children's books. Maybe that's next?

​In the meantime, check out her books and her website with the details in the contact image! I hope to see more Rynnie Roo Adventures coming our way soon!

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