Lori Degman is a teacher of deaf and hard of hearing students by day and a writer of picture books by night, weekend and school holiday. Her debut picture book, “1 Zany Zoo,” was the winner of the 2008 Cheerios New Author Contest. A mini version of the book was distributed inside boxes of Cheerios in spring 2010 and the hardcover, published by Simon & Schuster, was released later that year. Degman lives in a suburb of Chicago.
Q&A with “Cock-a-Doodle Oops!”
Author Lori Degman
Where did you get the idea for the “Cock-a-Doodle Oops!” story?
Originally, Cock-a-Doodle Oops! was a “boy who cried wolf” type of story, where the rooster crows at all hours of the day and night. When he finally crows at sunrise, the farmer doesn’t believe him and continues sleeping. I’m not sure why I decided to change it, but I’m glad I did! Instead of “crowing wolf,” Rooster goes on a week’s vacation to the beach, leaving the other farm animals behind to wake the farmer, with cock-a-doodle moo, squeal, whooo, etc. Unfortunately, Farmer McPeeper’s a very deep sleeper and he sleeps the entire week!
It’s incredibly entertaining to read aloud. What made you gravitate towards writing in rhymes?
Thanks! I’ve always written in rhyme (with a few exceptions) – that’s how I hear my stories. Plus, I love the challenge a rhyming story creates – it’s like putting together a puzzle. This story’s rhyme scheme is more complex than others I’ve used but, once I got started, it was a ton of fun to write – especially the animals’ verses!
Your first book was set in a zoo, and this on a farm – you have a love for animals don’t you?
I do like animals but I’m not a fanatic or anything. For some reason, most of my story ideas involve animals – probably because animal characters can get away with doing things children can’t do. You can make it much more fanciful!
What do you hope children learn from reading the book?
I hope the book gives kids a love of reading and word play and that it serves as a model for their own writing. Mostly, I hope it makes them laugh! I think people often underestimate the importance of silliness and laughter!
The illustrations by Deborah Zemke are stunning – are they what you had envisioned when writing the book?
Deborah’s illustrations far surpass anything I could have imagined! I love how she captures the look of early morning and I especially love how the rooster is the color of a sunrise! The character's expressions are charming and she added a lot of humor that was not in the text. I feel so lucky that we found her!!