Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Animal House Month Begins!


I've got a new book coming out this month; ANIMAL HOUSE written by Candace Ryan, and illustrated by me. It comes out July 20th from Walker Books--you can see it on Amazon by clicking my link to the right, or by clicking here. It is the story of a family who lives in a house made of animals (there are even a few pinnipeds in it!)

This is the cover art--minus the title and author/illustrator attributions. And as you can read on the sign, the house is a Gorvilla. Get it? Everything on or inside the house is an animal, and every animal has a word-play name that describes it's purpose, like Gorvilla (Gorilla + Villa = Gorvilla.) There are eight animal/word-play/house items on this cover, including the Gorvilla. Can you name them all?

And I'll give bonus points to anyone who can coin a term for these animal/wordplay/house-items. Furnimals? Animobjects? Biodomicilians?

There will be a lot of animal/word-play/house-item guessing games this month, so get your wordplay hats on. Also, construction has begun on a LEGO ANIMAL HOUSE. It covers four large green "Lego ground plates" four! Hopefully I'll have it finished by the 20th when the book launches.

Here we go!

18 comments:

sallysue said...

Let's see:
Gorvilla
Snailbox
Giroof
welcomebat
chimonkey
vultrance
steerage shed
windodo
There's my attempt.

And the word for the words?
Beastalows.
heh.

Anonymous said...

Ah, yes, snailbox! I was trying to do something with slug, and it wasn't working. Obviously, I was blind to the curves of the shell. Likewise with the barn-thing. Ox and bull just weren't going anywhere.

I thought the door might be a Condoor? and the chimney a Chimpney?

Maybe they can all be Housimals.

Nathan said...

WOW! Sallysue has started this game off with a bang-- stellar opening guess!

I'll let everyone else place their best guesses before saying which ones are right. Well, by right, I mean match the names we use in the book, but I'm just as interested (maybe MORE interested) in seeing the names you come up with that weren't used in the book.

Keep them coming!

Clint C. said...

I say Yattic instead of the Steerage shed. But for the rest I'm going with sallysue!

Clint C. said...

Hey, my friend couldn't find another copy of Yellowbelly. I looked on Amazon and it's only available from 2nd-hand sellers. Is it time for a reprint?

Nathan said...

YELLOWBELLY is getting a little rare. Amazon does go out of stock from time to time, but they usually get more in. That said, I use Amazon's second party sellers a lot--do what you have to to secure a YELLOWBELLY.

Chris said...

For the general category, I vote faunashings (like furnishings), with a little parafurnalia thrown in.

They should check the zoodiac every day for their horseoscopes. And I'd like to see the other houses in the neighboarhood.

Chris said...

And it doesn't match the picture, but the ox should have been a bullcony.

Nathan said...

Faunashings--not bad! I like that!

I will say this; nobody has figured out the red bovine structure yet. It's not a Bullcony or a Steerage shed--although those are both very, very good answers.

Nathan said...

Or Yattic--these are all good. I should have run this guessing game BEFORE doing the illustrations, so many good ideas!

Unknown said...

Buffalo wing?

Nathan said...

Whoa--Buffalo Wing takes it to a whole new level! But that's not it.

Unknown said...

Gabull?

Nathan said...

Gabull it is! Nice work Ben--and everyone else. You figured out the red, bovine thing. Bull + Gable = Gabull!

Any other guesses for the others? I'll post the answers tomorrow.

Candace Ryan said...

Wow, what impressive punning skills! Where were you guys when I was writing the book?

I agree, Nate, it's very interesting to see which names other people come up with.

Chris, now I keep hearing, "Please keep your paws off the faunashings, dahling," running through my head.

Ron McCutchan said...

Gabull? I was going to say Annox. Or Gazebu (though it'd be gray-white, not red, wouldn't it?)
And...
Chimpney
Condoor

How about Zoologisms?

Ron McCutchan said...

No, no! Zoolodgisms! Arkitexturalisms?

Nathan said...

Ooh! Welcome the author, Candace Ryan is in the house! Well, the comments section anyway...Hi Candace!