“He’s so bad all of Leafman’s leaves die, all his green sticks turn brown because they don’t even want to be him. No one likes him, not even his mother will give him a box of dirt on his birthday. And they say he wanted to marry a black widow spider but to get away from him; she ATE HERSELF!”
I’m writing another book in the Leafman series of books. Here Anna is telling her Mom and her brother Paul, better known as Superman, about Leafman.  Leafman’s mother is known as Rose Woman. She doesn’t sound like a very good Mother, does she?

Let me tell you about visiting my Mom when she and my high school aged Don when fishing. Don LOVED fish, As a man he tried growing a fish farm, and helped to run one, raised trout in a wading pool in his living room for years. Once when 12 of us hoped to order 12 dishes, not 11, at a Chinese restaurant, Don refused to participate. He wanted to order a giant fish platter recommended for 20 people. I tried to shame into behaving but Mom said let him be.

Our table would have been crowded any way but then Don’s dinner was brought in. Our plates were already all but falling off the edges. His fish was THREE FEET LONG and its oval platter even bigger! Don’s behemoth not only hogged the table but it was UGLY! It should have been outlawed! I scolded, but Mom beamed. The thing stared at us during the entire meal! It had been presented in its entirety, the GREY mud looking gravy couldn’t hide its fins and EYES. Don ate the whole thing! Well I should qualify that staement, Don ate the whole thing but its EYES which were still mocking me through the fortune cookie course.
So, as I was saying, I visited Mom and we took Don fishing. Don knew exactly where to go, and evidently my Mom knew too because she didn’t need directions. It was a place where fish hung out and other fishermen didn’t! As you probably know fish LOVE skulking about in and among fallen submerged trees and as you can undoubtedly surmise NO FISHERMAN IN HIS RIGHT MIND WOULD FISH THERE. That is unless he brought his MOTHER! Don cast out and almost immediately yelled, ”Mom, I’m caught!” So mom waded in, up to her waist, and as she bent at 45 degrees, chest in the water and chin just barely out, she untangled his line. By then he’d set up his second pole cast and tangled this line, but I must say he was patient as he waited on her to work her way through the sunken trees to the second tangled line. I took pity and waded in too but still he had to wait over and over and over.
Maybe, just maybe, if Leafman’s Momma was as nurturing as mine, Leafman wouldn’t have turned out so wrong! To see pictures of that dastardly Leafman and read about his encounter with Paul, Anna, and her dragon, Iva Lou. Catch the four books in the Leaman Attacks series at Amazon.  nancymauerman.com