A humorous, beautifully illustrated, thoroughly entertaining story filled with adventure, love, romance and celebration. The characters in the book collaborate, strategize and negotiate to move beyond obstacles, to transform and thrive.

The Cookie Caper began as a visual depiction of a story about navigating beyond life’s obstacles. It evolved from only digital images to a book with both text and beautiful illustrations.

The hilarious characters in the book encounter one life threatening situation after the next. They demonstrate the importance of using strategy to come to an agreement.

When reading the book, you lose sight of the fact that the story takes place in a fictional landscape with fictional characters, many of whom are not human, because it’s easy to draw parallels with the River Community and its residents, and real life environments and people.

The story begins with areas of the river that are isolated from the mainstream and dangerous to travel; development is stagnant, and investment is non-existent. As the story unfolds the River Community is transformed to a safe, progressive, environmentally conscious, thriving community with new business and development.

Pogi, the main character of the story is the unassuming leader who builds a network of players necessary for a successful transformation. The River Gator Gang who are introduced as vicious bullies are converted from gang mentality to societal thinking with Pogi’s guidance and leadership. The gator gang members lives are turned around; they move from behaving badly acting like thugs involved in illegal activities, to health minded, contributing members of society, running legitimate businesses.

The book is entertaining, quite humorous, and educational offering glimpses into environmental issues such as biodiversity and imbalances in our ecosystems. The River Community embarks on the development of an Eco-friendly Riverwalk, setting net-zero climate goals to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and lower the levels of Co2 in the atmosphere. The new development is constructed with renewable sources of energy such as solar, and solutions for reducing reliance on fossil fuels such as converting to hybrid and electric engines.

The book highlights the importance of recognizing life’s wins and acknowledging successes. Cookies, the much desired and sought-after object in the story, are used as a metaphor for love throughout the book. The River Community harnesses the power of the love that brought them together to achieve great things.