Betsy Uhrig: My name is Betsy Uhrig and I'm the author of Double the Danger and Zero Zucchini. Double the Danger and Zero Zucchini is a book about a book, or more specifically, a book about how a boy named Alex helps turn his aunt's dull children's story about two frogs and a prize-winning zucchini into an epic adventure.

You might think that writing involves a lot of sitting around alone typing, but for Alex, it includes trespassing in an empty house where he is attacked by a giant bug, falling into a stream and being poked with a sharp stick, dangling from a swing and having mud balls thrown at him by hostile little girls, and rescuing his brother from a storm drain while being yapped at by an unhelpful dog. Most of this is filmed by his friend, Javier, and coached by his friend, Marta, who both enjoy a good laugh at Alex's expense. In the end, Alex meets a ghost, solves the mystery, performs a heroic rescue, and almost tells his aunt the truth about where his fabulous book ideas come from.

The idea for Double the Danger and Zero Zucchini came to me from a friend. She'd written a book for kids and asked her young niece to read it and point out any confusing or boring parts. I found myself wondering what would have happened if my friend's book was dull from start to finish, which it wasn't. What would her niece have said to her? In Double the Danger and Zero Zucchini, Alex's aunt has written a book about frogs growing zucchinis that needs a complete overhaul, as far as Alex is concerned. And Alex ends up in all kinds of awkward situations, as he tries to convince her to add some danger and get rid of the zucchini.

I'm hoping that kids who read it, first of all, laugh out loud. That is my ultimate hope. But I also want them to understand the process of writing a book, that it doesn't necessarily involve just one person sitting alone and typing, it can involve a lot of input from other people or experts on various subjects or friends or family, or whoever they want to listen to.

Now, I would like to share a short passage from Double the Danger and Zero Zucchini. In this chapter, Alex is on a research trip to the library, a place he doesn't go very often. Here it is.

I went in the late afternoon, hoping there wouldn't be a bunch of tiny kids having story hour or whatever they did in the children's room in their waist-high gangs. The children's librarian was sitting at her desk. She was a get-right-to-the-point type of person -- that was obvious from her no-nonsense glasses.

"Alex Harmon," she said, when I'd arrived at her desk. "I knew you would come."

So that was odd, right? It sounded like the kind of thing you'd hear from someone wearing a burlap robe with a hood that he hid most of her face. In reality, she was wearing normal clothes, though her sweater looked handmade. She stared at me patiently. She didn't blink. Her hands were folded in front of her on the desk. They were the calmest, least fidgety hands I'd ever seen. I felt like I'd arrived at some mystical person's cave after a dangerous trek up a steep mountain. I was surprised she didn't serve me some weird tea made from roots. She did have some normal-looking tea of her own, but she didn't offer me any.

"How did you know I would come?" I asked when the staring had gotten uncomfortable. "I didn't even know I was coming till this morning."

"I've been expecting you," she said. Which was not an answer to my question. I was starting to think maybe I'd go to the branch library, when she added, "You're ready, aren't you?"