The The Lively Times of Dill, Will and Toucan Bill and Their Irresistible Friends celebrate the spirit of creativity and of working together.
The story centers on the energetic squirrel Dill, who dreams of adventures near and far from her home in Central Park. Her steadfast companions and neighbors, Will, who is the Will of Shakespeare, and Toucan Bill, the cheerful healing bird from Brazil, are always ready to join in and amplify her ventures. Carla the Cloud is their personal carrier for wherever the threesome chooses to go. The eight Red-Tailed Hawks that live nearby on the high terrace of a fancy Fifth Avenue building are ardent fans of Dill, Will and Toucan Bill and love getting involved with their projects.
Dill never goes anywhere without a big hamper of sandwiches or her glasses, or without her brush and comb that Toucan Bill uses regularly to keep her furry tail always looking lustrous and perfect. She always carries her World Geography Book, ready to answer questions children might have about faraway cities, countries, rivers and mountains.
She is completely open to new ideas. When Toucan Bill suggests they visit the Queen of England she thinks, “That’s a crazy idea.” But she also thinks, “Why not?” The hospitable Queen offers an invitation to tea and off they fly on Carla the Cloud to Buckingham Palace.
The visit with the Queen inspires Dill to launch a restaurant in a big Elm tree in Central Park. She calls it The Buckingham and hopes it becomes a neighborhood meeting place. She creates exotic menus that entice charming bears, cheery raccoons, curious turtles and a bevy of children, including the little lonesome boy, Fred. The new friends become invaluable protectors when Dill’s next creation, The People’s Library, is trashed by book haters.
The king of Ranastan in faraway Asia hears of The People’s Library and invites Dill, Will, Toucan Bill and the Red-Tails to help him set up a floating library to bring books to everyone in his watery kingdom. All goes well until an angry ogre, hiding deep in a big river, shows up seeking to capsize the book boat library. Dill, Will and Toucan Bill nervously calm him. Dill distracts him with her World Geography Book’s fascinating information on his majestic river.
The story is full of imaginative twists and turns that not only entertain young readers but also stretch their horizons about how fascinating the world is in its creativity and complexity. The characters are proxies for diversity and ingenuity. They are a mix of personalities that could be your neighbors anywhere.
The Lively Times of Dill, Will and Toucan Bill and Their Irresistible Friends can be thought of as a modern-day fable where an energetic community of unlikely friends devises ways to make their community better. They thrive on helping and supporting each other. They take improbable risks. They martial other unlikely friends to their projects and create bigger communities of friendships. They fit into the author’s cosmos that these communities of friendship, however unlikely, engage in beautiful projects and take their community with them.

Rosemary hopes that young, and not so young, readers will have a fun journey delighting in the adventures, experiments, friendships, and accomplishments of Dill, Will and Toucan Bill.

“The Uncanny Adventures of Dill, Will and Toucan Bill” tells the story of three winsome characters who travel around the globe and even up to the cosmos to discover the marvels of the world. Dill is a pretty, perky squirrel who regularly consults her world geography book to locate exotic destinations. Her neighbor in Central Park, in New York City, is Will, who is the Will of Shakespeare. He enjoys travel and the opportunity it provides to find material for new plays. On a trip to Brazil, Dill and Will meet Toucan Bill, a happy boisterous healing bird, who returns with them to live in Central Park. There, he moves into a 5th Avenue building occupied by eight Red-Tailed Hawks.

Dill, Will and Toucan Bill make their journeys with the beautiful diaphanous cloud called Carla. She expertly navigates around all kinds of earthly landscapes and even flies our touring trio to the Big Dipper. The equally adventure-loving Red-Tails accompany Carla and Dill, Will and Toucan Bill wherever they go. Dill always travels with her world geography book and a large hamper of sandwiches that she shares with everyone the travelers meet.

The story is fun and fanciful and full of odd surprises as when they meet the Leprechauns who live in the Big Dipper. Or when they enjoy the hospitality of two giant rabbits on the steppes of Kazakhstan and later visit the Tomb of Tamerlane in Samarkand. That the characters themselves are an odd bunch stretches the imagination in a delightful way. The story invites the reader to enjoy travel and, like its intrepid characters, to embrace seeing new places, meeting new people, eating different foods and experiencing new cultures.

The story stirs the imagination of young and old alike. It recognizes that travel opens the mind and heart to unmatchable experiences. It celebrates diversity and is a reminder that travel is best when grounded in respect and trust of others.