Mischievous Baby Was “Born” in the 70’s

Authors, I would LOVE to hear from you! Have you ever had an idea for years …possibly decades that you could never completely shelve? That character was a part of you in some way , or at least a part of your past. Mischievous Baby is that character for me. He is so old I cannot remember how old I was when I began to tell Mischievous Baby stories to my sister. My guess is I was somewhere between 10-12 years, but M Baby seems like he has been a part of me forever.

I created him so long ago. As one of my favorite authors Austin Kleon said, nothing is original. It just depends on how you make it your own. I remember being horrified when I saw the main character on the Mad Magazine issues. I swear I never saw him before I created Mischievous, but could definitely be M Baby’s older sibling.

Then there are the Super Diaper Baby books, the Captain Underpants Series by Dav Pilkey. I thought, hey! I had the idea about a genius baby first. So silly!

I realize now we each came up with some similar character. Nothing wrong or odd with that! Mischievous is nothing like Captain Underpants. M Baby’s main sidekick is his Golden Retriever, Snooky. Mischievous is nine months old, so of course he is not potty trained, yet he can walk, play Mozart on piano, and adores reading Shakespeare. He is ridiculously beyond reality which is why is he is so dang funny.

I had to share Mischievous Baby stories with my own children and my students. This character was a huge hit with that target audience of fourth-sixth grade. I saw the incredible popularity of the Dogman Series (again created by Dav Pilkey! I really need to meet him!) and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series by Jeff Kinney. My fifth graders could not read them fast enough. I loved how they appealed to both boys and girls.

All I can tell you is I am having a ball finally writing my first Mischievous Baby book. Since I created him so long ago I have a slew of ideas for his escapades, enough for a series. Here’s hoping you’ll get a chance to read about him!