Amy Timberlake: Hello, my name is Amy Timberlake and I am the author of Skunk and Badger. So, the story Skunk and Badger began because I was stuck, I was really, really stuck, so, so stuck, in this other book project. And here's what stuck looked like for me. I worked for hours, diligently, persistently, and I wrote in circles every day.

I know. Yeah, it sounds like a nightmare, but honestly it wasn't so bad because there would be these little victories. And sometimes there would be sentences with great sounds and cadences. And there were these characters that I loved, that I could just write about all day long. And apparently I did.

As part of the research for that other project, I read all these kids' books with bears or toy bears in them. So I read bear fairy tales, bear mythology, the Paddington bear stories and I read all of the Winnie the Pooh stories. And oh, A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories, they were really something. They were beautifully written, so carefully crafted, and I just loved them. I was actually rereading them, but I really just fell for them when I read them this time.

And that started me wondering what kind of story I would tell if I wrote a story like the Winnie the Pooh stories. And what I mean is this, what kind of story would I personally tell if I wrote an episodic story, but in my own writing voice with my own style? So I wasn't thinking I was going to write Winnie the Pooh. I was thinking, what if I wrote a story kind of like this, but in the way that I would write it? I remembered my parents reading to my brother and I before bed. And so I was thinking, I would really like to write a read-aloud. Something you could read aloud to someone else before bed.

And this led eventually to two animals appearing on the page, a badger and a skunk. So let's hear a little bit of how that went. So here it goes, Chapter One of Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake with gorgeous pictures by Jon Klassen:

The first time Badger saw skunk, he thought, "Puny," and shut the front door.

Badger didn't normally shut the door on animals that knocked. But there was too much slick in this one's stripe, too much puff in his tail. Also, there had been that grin, and the way he'd stuck out his paw as if he'd been looking forward to meeting Badger for a long, long time.

Badger knew what to make of that. He shut the door before the fellow got any ideas. "Not. Buying. Anything," he said through the keyhole.

When the knocking continued, Badger added, "Ever."

Then he drew the bolt. And the double bolt. And latched the chain.

"Quartzite!" Badger thought briskly as he padded back into his rock room.

Now Badger pulled his stool up to his rock table. He adjusted his work light. He picked up a magnifying glass with one paw and the quartzite with the other.

Rap-rap. Rap-rap-rap.

The sound came from the front door. Badger stopped. It was that fellow again.