The third book in the series. One day Mrs Hazel has her branches layer by Robin and as the weather turns she is reminded that it must be time for 'The race', where some of the forest creatures race from Shady Shallows to Sandy Beach. Woodlouse finds a crisp packet while Ivy borrows a speedy leaf from Sycamore, the Hazel Nuts ride a twig with a leaf canopy and the Sloe Berries were tethered together and swam!
Here is the cover, title page and back cover design. Notice on the back cover, one of the book cover facsimiles is 'Ashes to Ashes'. This will be the fourth or fifth book in the second series of three.
I remember, in one of our meetings to discuss the story, we spent 45 minutes discussing how Woodlouse would fall off the crisp packet and when! We found that quite funny but also was a nice change from our other demanding work at the time.
It's very easy to say, "Oh, Woodlouse will ride on a crisp packet", but it's another thing designing one that doesn't look like any crisp packet in real life. Munchy Crunch was a good name, memorable without sounding recognisable. I wanted Woodlouse to be holding and steering the craft as well. I didn't want it to be like a raft.
In the fifth image above I introduced Old Grandfather Ash to the forest, just a background character, buthe is part of the main story in a later book. I like to think that when children look back at book three they'll get a thrill from recognising Grandfather Ash when they see him.