In 1996 my next book for Gibbs Smith was published, You Don't Always Get What You Hope For . A fitting title, because in spite of a positive response, we didn't get the sales we hoped for, and I soon realized why. The following year we returned to language arts concepts with Pig Pigger Piggest , which introduced adjectives, comparatives and superlatives. In 1998 came why the Banana Split , a book about synonyms and idioms. Gibbs Smith and I have decided that we have a formula that works, fun picture books introducing language arts concepts, and we shouldn't stray far from it.
Current plans are to publish one such picture book every fall.
Picture books with curriculum topics have been good to me, and I've expanded beyond How Many and Gibbs Smith. A Bedtime, ABC and Counting Book . The book has been selling very well and was a 1999 IRA Children's Choice book. A sequel, One More Bunny came out in 2000. It introduces simple addition.