How backyard chipmunks inspired a northern Ontario author's new children's book

This is Chippy in his garden. He's getting ready to do his gardening. So today is a good day to tend to the garden. I have my wheelbarrow ready and all my gardening tools handy in my potting shed. I would really like to grow some peanuts. My name is Linda Stoner and I've just published my second book, Chippy's Adventures. It was about 12 years ago, I was watching the news one evening, and there's a lady from the east coast of Canada, and she had red squirrels in her backyard, and she made little pots, and took them outside and photographed the squirrels with her pots, and I thought that looked like a lot of fun, so I started, I didn't have red squirrels, but I had chipmunks, so I went in my backyard and started very simply, and I was photographing the chipmunks. And it was a lot of fun, so I just, I never stopped. The cover of my first book is just a chipmunk kissing a dinosaur, a poor dinosaur. And so there was no real set involved. And then I thought, hmm, I could do a little set. So I started going around to antique shops and collectibles and second-hand stores and finding size-appropriate props and then building on that and making little sets. And then I'd go over and try and get him to do what I want him to do. That was the next step. They have their own ideas, and they don't listen well. So I took hundreds of pictures and lots of sunflower seeds and patience. I just let him do what he wants. I put sunflower seeds in strategic places in the set so that I can lure him to where I want him. And then I just am ready with the camera, and I just photograph what he does. Sometimes, most times, I do get the picture that I'm after. The things that went wrong, I have lots of those. Here he's trying to push the teddy bear on the swing, but it's not working well. And then he, but he's a young chipmunk and he's learning, so he's figured it out. Now he's pushing the teddy bear the way he's supposed to. In this one, he's trying to get grandma's room ready for her, and he's trying to turn the lights on, but it's not working because he's on top of it. And here he's trying to, the picture is crooked. The picture of the peanut plant is crooked. So he's trying to straighten it out, but it's not working well. He's hanging off of it. But he gets it done, and the room is perfect for grammar.