THE GREAT ADVENTURES OF SASSAFRAS AND MR. HOBO, 2020


WHEN ADVENTURE KNOCKS MAKE SURE YOU ANSWER THE DOOR!

When working girl Sassafras makes an exciting discovery on her lunch break, she is thrust into a hidden world of excitement, thrills, and danger.   Her guide on this trip—a cranky old warlock named Mr. Hobo, a salty old man with a mushroom wine dependency and more than one trick up his sleeve.  This fast-paced fantasy novel is sure to wow readers of all ages, from the youngest tot to the oldest geezer.  Jam packed with not only the most thrilling nouns, verbs, prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, and adjectives (the punctuation is a bit on the banal side, unfortunately), but amazing artwork as well.  The Great Adventures of Sassafras and Mr. Hobo is destined to be hailed as a modern classic, so don’t waste any more time reading the back of the dang book.  Crack this baby open and get reading!

Written by Damon Bishop

Illustrated by Caitlin Duennebier 


Book coming soon...

Chapter One: The Western Lodgepole

    Many, many years ago, long before either you or I were born, there was a little girl named Sassafras.  She lived in a small village nestled between a big blue ocean and some rather tall and pointy mountains.  The summer she turned twelve, as summers often are for those turning twelve, was positively overflowing with adventure.  Sassafras certainly didn't realize at the start of summer that she was about to have such an exciting adventure.  All of her summers up to that point were not all that thrilling.  Usually there was barely enough interesting events to fill a postcard, never mind a book as thick as this one you now hold.  She thought it would be more or less like the summer when she turned eleven.  Or the one before that, when she was nine, going on ten.  Or the summer before that one.  Although that summer was when she saw a seagull poop on the mayor's head.  It would be hard to achieve that level of excitement.  That was definitely the high water mark of thrills in Sassafras's life. The memory of the mayor, the white, juicy seagull poop dripping off his shiny bald head, would be hard to beat in terms of excitement.  No, it was definitely shaping up to be a pretty boring summer for Sassafras.  Sure--she had found time for an ice-cream sandwich or two, but summer was passing more or less like it always did.  For you see-- back then child labor laws weren't like the ones we have today.  By that I mean they didn't exist at all.  It was because of this lack of laws that Sassafras, at the precocious age of four and three quarters, had found herself working at the Town Clerks Office.  Over the years she had climbed through the ranks and had recently been promoted to Associate Clerk.  If you needed to file an application for a building permit for your new backyard shed, you'd want to talk to Sassafras.  Need your great grandma's death certificate?  Sassafras was your lady.  Need to renew your clamming license?  That would be Clancy Custard on the third floor-- look for the door labeled FISH & GAME.  Sassafras would be the one to give you directions on how to find his office though.

      It was while she was on her half-hour, legally-required lunch break that Sassafras had her bright idea.  She was in the grove of pine trees behind the Town Hall, eating a marmalade and eucalyptus sandwich.  She enjoyed visiting the grove, with its cool shade and wealth of pinecones.  Sassafras absolutely loved pinecones.  All the people in the village said she had the finest collection of pinecones any of them had ever seen.  Which was them just being polite, seeing as how Sassafras's collection of pine cones was the only one they had ever seen.  As Sassafras chewed up the last of her sandwich she looked towards the far corner of the grove and spotted something amazing.  It looked to be the large cone of a Western Lodgepole pine tree!

      "What are you doing here?" she asked the pinecone as she picked it up for examination.  "There are no Western Lodgepoles in this area.  You, my silly friend, are hundreds of miles from your home. I am glad we met though.  You will make quite the conversation piece in my collection!"

     Sassafras's mind was suddenly swimming with ideas.  As she wrapped her new pinecone acquisition in a napkin and made her way back to the town hall an idea came to her.  There was a whole world of pinecones out there, just waiting to be discovered.  She could spend several lifetimes waiting and they still might not come to her.  It was a miracle the Western Lodgepole had found her in the first place. If she wanted to find other species of cone, she would have to bring herself to them!  She decided then and there, she should take a week off from work!   And so, at 4:45 that afternoon, Sassafras climbed the stairs to the fourth floor and met with Diane in Human Resources. After much back and forth, a bit of solid negotiating, a few tears, and one promise Sassafras was granted the next week off.  Without pay. 

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