Judy Cox

It's finally finished! Several years ago, I started a third book about those adventuresome rat brothers--Frederick and Ishbu. It's been a long wait, but the book is done and available as an eBook. You can buy it at Amazon.com.

Why the long wait? Well, real life has a way of interrupting a writer's fantasy world from time to time. We had a rough couple of years that included an across-state move to be closer to family, and some severe health problems. But all is well now, and I was at last able to finish THE SECRET OF THE DOOLITTLE DEVICE. It is currently ONLY available as an eBook. If there is some demand, I will release a print version. There is a FREE preview on Amazon.com!

Many thanks to all of the fans of Frederick and Ishbu who encouraged me to keep going. I love those ratty brothers, and I love all of you.

THE SECRET OF THE DOOLITTLE DEVICE
Ishbu loves carrot sticks and marshmallow treats, and Frederick loves Geography. The rat brothers live and learn in a cozy cage in Miss Dove’s classroom, until the fateful day when Mrs. Thorn throws them out of the window, and launches them on a wild journey to save the world. This third adventure finds them traveling the globe in search of a rare element needed to power the mysterious Doolittle Device. But can the brothers reach it before the Big Cheese gets his evil paws on it?
A companion volume to "The Mystery of the Burmese Bandicoot" and "The Case of the Purloined Professor" also by Judy Cox. Read More 

Now available in paperback--a new edition of The Mystery of the Burmese Bandicoot!

One of the hardest things about being an author these days is seeing a favorite book go out of print. In the olden, golden days of children's books, books stayed in print for decades, giving time for people to find the book and for the audience to grow. Not so anymore. All sorts of economic pressures conspire to put books out of print.

I cried when I found out that The Mystery of the Burmese Bandicoot was going OOP. I cried, and then I bought up as many copies as I could afford. And then I decided to do something else--something that was never available to me before. I brought out a new paperback edition of the book, through Authors Guild's Back in Print program.

Sadly, I wasn't able to obtain the rights to Omar Rayvan's gorgeous cover illustration, so I made a cut paper illustration of my own and used that.

Now, at long last, the first adventure of Frederick and Ishbu is available again. I hope you enjoy it!  Read More 

If you've read the first book in The Tails of Frederick and Ishbu series, The Mystery of the Burmese Bandicoot, you know that Frederick and Ishbu are based on two real pet rats I had in my kindergarten classroom a few years ago.

Frederick was a slim gray rat, the color known to rat fanciers as "lilac". Ishbu was a hooded rat with a white body and black head. Both rats had round shiny black eyes and whiskers that vibrated with every motion. I spun tales of their imagined adventures to entertain my kindergartners. Many years later, I expanded the adventures and wrote them down.

Most of the places in the first book were researched through the internet, books, and magazines, but when it came time to write the second book, I wanted to recreate places I'd actually visited--my hometown of San Francisco, one of the world's loveliest cities; Loch Ness and Cawdor Castle in Scotland; Zermatt and the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

I don't know where the rats will travel to next, but I hope they will take me along.  Read More