Roberta Writes – Book Blog Tour, My Backyard Friends: Inspiration for Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home #childrensfiction

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Picture caption: Banner for the My Backyard Friends WordCrafter book tour including the covers of the three books

Inspiration for Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home

Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home was inspired by an actual invasion of swallows invade. I had enjoyed watching the chickadees coming and going from the hole in the tree each day for some time, and then, one day, a swarm of violet-green swallows came swooping in and took the nest over, evicting the poor little chickadees. They stayed for the remainder of the summer, and they have the most beautiful, iridescent blue and green coloring, but they are aggressive birds, and I always wondered what happened to the original occupants of the tree.

(Robbie did a great job of depicting the beautiful violet-green swallow for the book.)

Along the way, Charlie meets the older and wiser, Nicholas Nuthatch, who shows Charlie around and offers advice to the young bird, who has found himself alone and on his own for the first time. He is a guiding force when he befriends Charlie, giving him the low down on the local bird community. Nuthatches are silly little birds in the woodpecker family, only slightly larger than the little chickadees, which hop up and down tree trunks and across branches, sometimes completely upside-down. I call them my aerial acrobats.

Robbie’s Nicholas Nuthatch

The story is one of survival for a young chickadee, when he loses his home and is separated from his parents during a swallow invasion. But it is also about cooperation and friendship, becoming independent and relying on oneself. Charlie Chickadee is a longer story, rather than a picture book tale, like the other two books and it is aimed at children in the six-to-eight-year age group.

Mini interview with Nicholas Nuthatch

Hi Nicholas, it is amazing how you climb up tree trunks. How do you do that?

I have strong claws which help me find purchase in the crevasses of the tree bark and I just grip with one foot while taking a step with the other. Woodpeckers can only go up because they use their long tails to help them balance, but my tail is short, and I’m agile enough that I can go up, turn around and go down or even climb onto the branches and hang upside down, so I can get to bugs hidden in crevasses that woodpeckers might miss.

If there is no feeder available, what sort of food do you like to eat?

I eat bugs, and seeds. I use the crevasses in the tree bark to hold the seeds in place while I crack them open with my beak, and also to stash them for later. I have a good memory, so I can even come back month later and will be able to find them.

Picture caption: Banner including an extract from Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home

Fun Facts About Nuthatches

  • Nuthatches grasp tree trunks and branches with strong claws, enabling them to hop up and down the trunks headfirst, and even upside-down across branches. I call them my aerial acrobats of the forest.
  • They are in the woodpecker family, but have short tails, unlike their distant relatives, which can go up tree trunks using their longer tails for balance, but cannot go down headfirst.
  • They have a distinctive call which sounds like the squeaker in a dog’s squeaky toy.
  • Nuthatches are omnivores, eating insects, nuts, and seeds.
  • Nuthatches are known to cache food for later in crevasses in the bark of the tree, and they remember where they hid it for long periods of time.
  • They are territorial and will defend the nests vigorously.
  • Nuthatches communicate through vocalizations, body postures and movements, and visual cues, with specific signals for interaction with their young.
  • The name Nuthatch originated as Nut Hacker, because they wedge nuts and seeds into the crevasses of tree bark to hold them in place and then break open the shells by pecking it with their beaks.
Picture caption: Banner featuring the blurb of Charlie Chickadee gets a new home

Pre-order the My Backyard Friends books here:

Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend (Ages 3-5): https://books2read.com/u/471vzj

Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans (Ages 3-5): https://books2read.com/u/3LL5K7

Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home (Ages 6-8): https://books2read.com/u/md2YLO

About Kaye Lynne Booth

Kaye Lynne Booth is a freelance writer, editor, multi-genre author and independent publisher. She holds dual MFA in Creative Writing – Genre Fiction and Screenwriting, and an M.A. in Publishing. To earn her publishing degree, she worked under the mentoring of International Bestselling author, Kevin J. Anderson on the Gilded Glass: Twisted Myths & Shattered Fairy Tales editorial team from Western State Colorado University and WordFire Press and she compiled and edited Weird Tales: The Best of the Early Years 1926-27, under Jonathan Maberry.

About Robbie Cheadle

South African author and illustrator, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated sixteen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, and written and illustrated three poetry books. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.

Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

Find out more about Robbie Cheadle on her blog here: https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/

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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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65 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – Book Blog Tour, My Backyard Friends: Inspiration for Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home #childrensfiction”

  2. This sounds like a delightful series and a lovely introduction to Charlie and Nicholas! The story will captivate both children and adults and wow, your illustrations Robbie are beautiful and bring a new dimension to the stories.

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  16. Terrific, Robbie. I’ll be a customer for sure. The chickadee is one of my favorite birds. We have lots of swallows in our area. They like to build their mud homes under our eves. I remember being with my dad once on a bird count once when I was a kid. (he was a wildlife biologist and ornithologist) We would stop every couple of miles in rural areas, and he would name the species and amount he saw while I recorded the figures on a checklist. On one stop, we stopped on a bridge with a creek running below. He knew on this spot, but I had never been there. He started whooping and clapping and within seconds at least 500 swallows began making loops over and under the bridge. It was an amazing sight. Then, we looked under the bridge and there were hundreds of dirt nests, jammed together.

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    2. Pete, how did your father know he wasn’t counting the same birds over? I have always wondered how one would go about counting the birds. All of the same species look the same, especially at a distance. I have Robins that I swear return every year to my yard to visit, but up close you can see the small differences and I’ve even named them, but it is hard to tell when new birds join the flock.

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  19. Gorgeous paintings, Robbie. It was fun learning about these critters. I know kids, particularly boys will love it. Anything scientific or non-fiction is great for giving boys a reason to read.

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  25. Robbie you are so gifted, you just excel at everything you do. I am blown away at your painting they are so beautiful, and so detailed. And of course you write so well.

    I wish I had your energy and motivation.

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