Boing! Boing! Boing! shows a shut-down and withdrawn Christopher who is non-active and uninterested in exploring places, discovering things, and interacting with people like other girls and boys his age. Dad is forced to take his son outside in the nighttime but continues to teach him about the things they see and the sounds they hear. Christopher only wants to hide his face and block his ears in fear. By chance, Dad stops in to see the storekeeper who gives him some candy drops that he promises will give Christopher “the hops.” By using the candy as a special type of learning tool, Dad helps Christopher to become interested in people, places, and things.
Mouth is about a little boy who has trouble speaking and finds it difficult to initiate speech. Christopher wants to talk with other children but becomes embarrassed and violent when his mouth won’t let his words come out. Dad visits Mr. Storekeeper, who supplies Dad with a few treats (edible and otherwise) that will help to exercise Christopher’s mouth muscles. A fierce blizzard attacks the town and Christopher and Dad are snowed in, inside their apartment where they spend the whole winter playing speech and language learning games, chewing bubblegum, blowing up balloons, and popping sunflower seeds in their mouths. Dad finds ways to manage his son’s anxiety, Christopher’s mouth begins to motor, and words are finally able to spill out.
Inside Tubsy by Christopher A Chaplin
Inside Tubsy confronts Christopher’s fear of water. Dad uses the green fluffy towel named Squeezey as a bridge and to give his son a sense of security. The bathtub eventually becomes a safe haven for Christopher, who now continues his development and learns to confront his anxieties and triumph over his fears.
Losing Squeezey by Christopher A Chaplin
Losing Squeezey shows how an object often provides emotional security for a child who has medical or psychological challenges. In this story, Christopher expresses anxiety when
Squeezey is lost. Christopher grows increasingly angry and will not eat, learn, or socialize without his special towel. The story culminates with Dad and Christopher’s successful search
to find Squeezey.
Squeezey Wonders by Christopher A Chaplin
Squeezey Wonders is the tale of what happens to Squeezey when she becomes separated from Christopher and is taken to a scary warehouse. Squeezey worries that she will never
see Christopher again and endures the harrowing experience of being used by many different people for many different reasons. When all hope seems lost, Squeezey is reunited with
Christopher.
Owl Eyes by Christopher A Chaplin
Owl Eyes is the story of how Dad helps Christopher overcome socializing difficulties by learning to make eye contact with things and people. Christopher struggles with communicating and how to understand his surroundings, thus making him insecure and unwilling to socialize with other people. Dad takes him to “Explanation Park” for a hike, and helps Christopher to gain a new perspective on making eye contact with people, places, and things. This helps Christopher to be more receptive to experiencing life through learning and interaction.
Boof by Christopher A Chaplin
Boof is a humorous way of exploring the serious issues that parents of self-injurious children encounter. Christopher gives reasons for his behavior, and Dad takes him to see a wizard to get a remedy. Christopher is given learning incentives and develops a stronger self-identity. He stops “Boofing” his head. The plot is a fun fantasy that tickles the senses.
Yeah I Love Mommy Today by Christopher A Chaplin
Yeah, I Love Mommy Today explains the difficulties that separated parents and their children experience during parental visitations. Christopher is happily living with Dad and has
trouble handling the change in routine when it is time to visit his mother. Dad prepares Christopher to see his mother, who has made special plans for their day together. Christopher and
Mom are about to leave when their plans to go to Explanation Park come suddenly to a halt. Christopher begins to tantrum, Mom panics, and calls Dad, who gives her an activity that
will help to calm Christopher. Mom develops a stronger bond with her son and Christopher now says “Yeah! I love Mommy today!” every time he goes to visit her.
Babble by Christopher A Chaplin
Babble shows how parents of special needs children must sometimes endure public embarrassment caused by inappropriate behavior by their children. Christopher has overcome many hurdles and is ready to meet the world. However, each time he catches someone’s attention, he begins to “babble” his life story. Christopher’s newly learned skill of socializing is complicated by his inability to relate well to others, which makes him anxious when social interactions do not go his way. Christopher hikes to Explanation Park where he stumbles upon the answers he needs while sitting underneath the “Question Tree.”
Mommy Says its A Monster by Christopher A Chaplin
Mommy Says It’s A Monster is an action-packed piece that explores the difficulties that parents have when trying to explain to their developmentally challenged children the difference between real and make believe. Christopher and Dad are stuck
in their car during an angry thunderstorm, and are unable to get home. Christopher is about to throw a tantrum because he doesn’t believe that “the monster” is a “storm” (verbalizing the different terms that Mom and Dad use, respectively). Dad uses
different strategies to help Christopher differentiate between real and make believe and Christopher’s speech and language become increasingly more rational.
Mr. I-Presume Visits Planet Earth by Christopher A Chaplin
Mr. I-Presume underlines the essence of this delightfully crafted social lesson that things are not always as they seem. During this whimsically expressed story, an alien, suitably named Mr. I- Presume, is excited at the opportunity to visit the forgotten planet known as Earth. He packs his trusted special phone that stores “The Book of Beliefs” information about the planet to help identify whatever he discovers while there.
The spaceship lands and Mr. I-Presume begins to walk along a wooded road where he spots a life form that is inside a soggy log and chewing on a bone. He quickly refers to the display on his phone to learn about the look and sound of what he thinks is a funky furry rat. Mr. I-Presume says hello to the strange being. Instead of hearing Screech! Screech! like the sound most rats make, the rat actually begins to Rib-bit! Rib-Bit! like a frog.
The alien scratches his tentacles and continues his exploration of our silly planet Earth. He explores Earth and comes across many beings that are not as what he was led to believe, according to “The Book of Beliefs.” Mr. I-Presume wants to escape these topsy-turvy beings and sends a transmission to his home planet, Peaches and Cream, requesting a spaceship to beam him home. He has discovered that, on Earth, things are not always as they seem.
Tipee-Toe Tony & Mr. One-Hand by Christopher A Chaplin
In this fast-moving, easy-reading mid-grade Explore & Discover picture story, a grimy young man named Tipee- Toe Tony and his scruffy puppy, Gruffy, live in a dented oil drum located in a vacant parking lot that everybody calls Hobo City.
Tipee-Toe Tony finds himself in a desperate mood as he and Gruffy are starving for food when, just like that, Tipee-Toe Tony has a plan and decides to tap dance and beat the top of his dented can like a drum, with the hope of filling his tin
cup with money to buy some much-needed ham and jam to fry in his pan. Sure enough, after tap dancing and beating on his drum, Tipee-Toe Tony attracts a man with one hand who wants to give the grimy young man some money–if Tipee-Toe will
give the man his right hand.
Tipee-Toe thinks about all his dreams, as well as his immediate need for food, and wonders if he would be better off with a pocket full of money and only one hand. Will Tipee-Toe Tony decide to sacrifice his hand for his immediate needs, or
will he think about his future and refuse to sell his hand to the stranger?
Tipee-Toe Tony Goes To Strawberry City by Christopher A Chaplin
Hip, Hip Hooray! Tipee-Toe Tony is moving out of Hobo City today. In this mid-grade Explore & Discover picture story, the grimy young man and his scruffy puppy, Gruffy, pack their bag full of ham and jam and are immediately faced
with choices and consequences on their long journey to see his friend Fussy Sam who lives in Strawberry City.
Tipee-Toe Tony and Gruffy walk for miles and become angry, hungry, and tired. After a quick meal, Tipee-Toe Tony and Gruffy continue their journey when they are stopped by a sobbing young girl and her Daddy in a red truck along the
roadside. The man informs the Tipee-Toe Tony that the only way he can reach Strawberry City before nightfall by foot is to cut through Spooky Forest where an assortment of wild and scary animals, including a vicious wolf known as Nasty Fangs,
are waiting to eat him.
The man offers Tipee-Toe Tony a ride in his truck in exchange for his loyal puppy, Gruffy. Tipee-Toe Tony has his mind set on reaching Strawberry City before nightfall and contemplates giving his canine companion away to the man’s
crying little girl. Will Tipee-Toe Tony give up Gruffy and travel with the stranger? Or will Tipee-Toe Tony attempt to sneak through Spooky Forest and avoid being eaten by Nasty Fangs?
Spooky Forest by Chrsitopher A Chaplin
Like most teenage boys, Tipee-Toe Tony cannot resist a good adventure. In this story, the grimy young man places his life in danger by stuffing Gruffy, his puppy, in his backpack and boldly riding his bike through Spooky Forest in hopes of reaching Strawberry City before sunset.
During their long bumpy bike ride, they begin to hear threatening sounds of forest creatures, notice paw prints along the forest floor, and see claw-marked trees that crowd the dark damp path as they attempt to sneak through Spooky Forest. Tipee-Toe Tony and Gruffy decide to stop and fry some ham and jam, but the smoke from their fire wafts through the forest and arouses Nasty fangs and his pack of furious friends.
Nasty Fangs is only a few yards away when a boy named Spooky Duke appears and leads Tipee-Toe Tony and Gruffy along a fallen tree to the edge of a steep cliff where they are forced to make a decision between leaping off or sharing the same sad consequence as all who had ever dared to attempt to travel through Spooky Forest. How are Tipee-Toe Tony and Gruffy going to escape this time?