The Day the Cow Sneezed

For years we've attempted to interest publishers in reprinting Jim Flora's 17 popular children's books. At the top of our wish-list were four titles: The Fabulous Firework Family (1955); The Day the Cow Sneezed (1957); Charlie Yup and His Snip-Snap Boys (1959); and Grampa's Ghost Stories (1978). We consider these the top-tier Flora kiddie books on an artistic level—with The Day the Cow Sneezed the most outlandish of the quartet.

We've had inquiries, offers, meetings, draft agreements, proposals—and subsequent turndowns from six or seven publishers (we've lost count). Reasons vary, but they never seem to have much to do with the quality of the books. They are business decisions, which we're in no position to second-guess.

Patience has paid off, as we recently signed with Enchanted Lion Books to reprint Cow Sneezed in Fall 2010. Publisher Claudia Zoe Bedrick is a Floraphile, and depending on the success of the first reprint, she hopes to continue republishing two Flora titles a year. There is even the possibility of printing Grampa's Ghost Stories, a two-color format work which contains some of Flora's most bizarre figures—in an all-new full-color edition.

Detail, The Day the Cow Sneezed