About

After painting a funky mash-up of a fish and a pineapple, Amy Leigh Starr (author/illustrator) punned the title, "Tropical Fish"! She couldn't stop there; next she mixed a bear and a strawberry and titled it "StrawBEARY". Amy showed her biggest fans (her children) the hybrid creatures and asked them to guess what she'd named them--the laughter said it all! She decided to create an entire art series of the whimsical and brightly colored animal-fruits, each titled with a pun. The silly pictures soon made their way into the household bedtime routine accompanied with an all-original song and guessing game:

And what do you think

you'd see if you mix

a fish and a pineapple?

Let's guess just for kicks!

Amy and her children had so much fun learning about fruits, animals, colors, textures, cultures and geography while dreaming up this zoo of fruits, that she wanted to share the amusement and educational opportunity by creating a children's book(s)!