The incredible story behind this children’s book

One almost-deleted voice memo became a story children never want to put down.

When Covid hit and we were all locked inside, my mind drifted to Noah. Being stuck indoors was hard enough but being cooped up on a wooden boat with thousands of noisy, restless animals? That sounded like absolute chaos. I grabbed my phone. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, I began to write a short rhyming story. I also made a voice recording, mostly because I was curious and wanted to hear how it sounded out loud.

Two weeks later I was on my phone trying to delete files that were taking up space. My thumb was literally hovering over the delete button, ready to erase the story and its audio recording when someone called me. The conversation drifted from family reading routines to other pandemic-related topics and I happened to mention the audio sitting on my phone. They demanded that I send it over immediately.

I had no idea they would play it for their entire family. Apparently, their whole house went completely silent the moment they heard me narrating the story. Then they suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter. They paused the audio and immediately called me back to say, “This is the best thing! When can you finish it?” That forgotten voice recording spent the next three years becoming the vibrant adventure now known as The Floating Zoo.