Jerry’s father is a creative genius, always thinking of ways to make life more interesting. But when he starts building a jungle gym that gets taller and taller, twisting all the way up to the sky, the soaring spectacle makes Jerry seriously squeamish.
Jerry’s jungle gym jitters get worse when he sees fearless friends and acrobatic animals hanging from tires and riding through tunnels. The overgrown obstacle course is scary enough for Jerry, but when a fire traps his daredevil sister in the towering contraption, only Jerry can save her. Can he summon the courage to rise to the occasion, or will the jungle gym jitters paralyze him?
Chuck Richards is an artist who has been teaching college-level drawing to first year art and design majors for the past twenty years. One day he was riding his bike past an elementary school playground with a fantastic, large wooden play structure and thought that it would be a useful tool for teaching his students linear perspective. At the same time, his children were bringing home amazing picture books. The two events combined to spark the idea for Jungle Gym Jitters, which took five years to create. Jungle Gym Jitters marks his debut as a picture-book artist. Chuck Richards is an associate professor of art and design at Iowa State University. He lives in Ames, Iowa, with his family.