NEWSPAPER
ARTICLE
September 1999
by Jim Sewell, associate editor
Green's JJ Brothers author child's book
The trend toward
colorful, page-filling drawings is based on the notion that vivid art will
keep a child tuned in to the story.And there's no doubt
that it works. Who among us does not have memories of a colorfully illustrated
childhood favorite that stirred the imagination?But at times the
author's message can be overshadowed by the brilliant splashes of color
on the page.The Adventures
of Caterpillar Jones, written by a trio of Green authors known as the
JJ Brothers, is beautifully illustrated. But it's the story that haunts
the memory, not the illustrations.It's quite natural
that Caterpillar Jones is a book that is meant to be read, rather
than just looked at, since the JJ Brothers come from a family with a strong
oral tradition.The book, in fact,
is a tribute to a revered family story teller—the grandfather, who
passed away in 1992."Our grandfather
was a remarkable story teller. He taught us about life and how to make every
day an adventure," said Jon Hixson, who is one third of the JJ Brothers.
Brothers Jim and Joe are the other two thirds. All three are Green High
Graduates."When our grandfather
died we saw how the adults were trying to explain what was happening. Everyone
was having a hard time with it, especially kids. We just thought there might
be a better way to explain loss to children," said Jon, who has a degree
in communications from the University of Akron.But don't expect
a didactic, teary story about pain and death. It's an upbeat tale that operates
on many emotional levels."Caterpillar
Jones is more than just about loss," says JJ Brother, Jim. "It's
about conquering your fears and having adventures and living your life to
the fullest."The three brothers
readily admit that they borrowed freely from a collection of real-life family
members to develop the characters in the book."We've got
a really large family. And there's a lot of interesting people—some
very, very unusual characters," said Joe, the youngest of the JJ Brothers.Characters from
the Hixson family collection of oral fables were worked into the mix as
well."We come from
a long line of story tellers, and we just kind of always had these little
imaginary people and animals in our lives. They just naturally blended right
into our characters," said Jim, who has a degree in theater from Otterbein
College."In theater
they teach you to break down characters and rebuild them, and that's what
we've done. They're deep characters—we deliberately put a lot into
them," said Jim.And Caterpillar
Jones is reflective of more than just unusual personalities in the JJ
Brothers' extended family and characters from cherished yarns. There's a
lot of the three authors built into the story as well."Pieces of
us are in each of the characters—our emotions and our feelings are
in Caterpillar Jones," said Joe, who is working toward a degree
in English education at Kent State. "When we started writing this we
knew that we didn't want simple characters."Although shepherding
the book through the writing process to publication was no simple task,
the brothers say that their team-centered approach to the project was a
big help."Of the five
of us (there are two more brothers—Jeff and Jerry), we're the most
artistic. We've all more or less got specialties. I come up with the ideas
for characters. Jon's good at working them into plot lines, and Joe is good
at cleaning up the wording and the grammar and stuff like that," said
Jim.The initial version
of Caterpillar Jones was a 14-page short story. Eventually it grew
to 180 pages, was rewritten into screenplay form and finally was published
as a 94-page chapter book.Although the screenplay
version has yet to be produced, the brothers are still hopeful that someday
Caterpillar Jones will be an onscreen character.The authors, all
of whom have worked at Green Video, which is owned and operated by their
mother, say that the book is intended to read like a movie."You can see
very clearly that this is written in a movie format," said Joe. "We
wanted to write a book that captures everyone's attention, not just children
but adults, too."According to Jim,
the JJ Brothers have "watched more 'b' movies than anyone else on the
planet." He says that their artistic tastes have been affected—in
a positive way—by their exposure to so many disturbing movies."There are
a lot of stupid and depressing movies out there. All the violence, all the
blood and gore—we wanted to write something that was entertaining,
but inspirational," said Jim."Kids are forced
to deal with so many negative things today. There is a real need for things
that motivate in a positive way. There's something for everyone in our book—there's
romance, there's adventure, it's all about how to live life to the fullest,"
he continued.The JJ Brothers
are already at work on their next project—a story about a squirrel.
At least one of the characters in the new book will be from Caterpillar
Jones.And they are hoping
to write a sequel to Caterpillar Jones in the future. It might even
turn into a series if the initial book proves successful.Currently the brothers
are in a promotional tour for the book. They'll be leaving for East Coast
signings within the next few weeks. 
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