Bernardosaurus says:Bernardosaurus says:This is the third book in what my publisher refers to as "My Barnyard Trilogy," joining The Cow That Went Oink and Cock-a-Doodle-Moo!
The idea for Z-Z-Zoink! grew out of Cock-a-Doodle-Moo!, which is about a rooster that loses his voice and can only whisper "cock-a-doodle-doo!" In my original rough dummy for Cock-a-Doodle-Moo! I had all the animals going "z-z-z-z-z" as the rooster tries in vain to wake them up. My editor at Harcourt, Diane D'Andrade, suggested "z-z-z-cheeps," z-z-z-moos," z-z-z-zoinks," etc., and I thought that was great fun, so we added them in the final version.
During the completion of that book and long after, the image of a pig going "z-z-zoink!" remained in my head. I thought about it a lot and developed this book about a pig that snores so loud, "z-z-zoink!", she wakes up all the animals on the farm. They keep shooing her away until she finds the perfect place to sleep without waking anybody.
One of my joys over the years is getting a chance to read aloud from many of my books on school visits. Z-Z-Zoink! is one of my favorite read-alouds.