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Jim Pepitas Creates Udderly Entertaining Book Series
Jim PetipasCreates an Udderly Entertaining Book Series
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by Melissa Fales
When author/illustrator Jim Petipas was in high school, he and some friends wrote a silly song about cows which they performed for skit night at their summer camp. “We came up with some funny lyrics and a pretty catchy tune,” Petipas recalls. “Years later, when I sang it for my daughters, they said, ‘Dad, you should turn that song into a children’s picture book.’ I thought that was a pretty good idea.” The result is The Cows Go Moo!, Petipas’s first children’s book, and the first installment in what will be a three-book bovine series.
Petipas started drawing at a young age and studied drafting in high school in hopes of becoming an architect. “When I was a kid, my parents brought me to the library often,” he says. “I can still picture the spot in the corner where all the how-to-draw books were. His parents also encouraged his love of music. His father bought him a mismatched drum set when Petipas was in the eighth grade, and he played in various bands throughout college and beyond. “I still play drums almost every day and I’ve started begging my wife to let me start up a band in the near future,” he says.
With the expectation that he would work in his stepfather’s appliance store, Petipas went to college and earned a degree in business. He worked at the store first as a janitor, then an installer, working his way up to a sales position. “They were going to make me the manager of my own store, but I felt very unfulfilled doing that type of work,” he says. Instead, Petipas followed a calling to earn a degree in youth ministry and spent 15 years working as a youth pastor. He loved the job, but since his wife had a high-powered job in Boston, it meant that a nanny was raising their two young girls. “It wasn’t right for our family to continue in that mode,” Petipas says. “We weren’t parenting our kids the way we wanted to be. We decided that I’d stay home with the kids.” Later, Petipas earned a master’s degree in family counseling and nine years ago, he began counseling adolescents. It’s a job he continues to do part-time. “My passion for helping teenagers navigate their lives is right up there with my passion for art,” he says.
Over the course of these different careers, Petipas hadn’t been keeping up with his drawing. Once he decided that he was going to translate the cow song into a children’s book, Petipas struggled to get beyond a few sketches. “I didn’t have a process, so I didn’t get anywhere with it,” he says. “Six years went by and I hadn’t done much. That’s when I heard about a class at MassArt. It took me through the process of creating a book dummy for The Cows Go Moo! It was awesome. I was so happy to have completed it.”
The Cows Go Moo! was released by Boardwalk Books, Petipas’s own indie publishing company, in May 2018. It’s a raucous, rhyming book that parents will enjoy as much as their children. It follows the adventures of nine musical cows whose band travels the world on the Udderly Crazy World Tour. Accompanying the book is the song that started it all, performed by Petipas himself, which is available as a free download from his website. He’s currently working on a The Cows Go Moo! coloring and activity book.
Petipas has already begun working on the second book, The Cows Go Moo Shuffle, and yes, it will have an accompanying song, too. In fact, it’s based on a song Petipas and his college roommate wrote when Petipas was first learning how to play the guitar and it’s designed to lead people through a series of dance moves. “It’s a song I’ve sang quite often with youth groups over the years,” he says. For this version, Petipas’s lyrics reference familiar nursery rhymes about cows, such as Hey Diddle, Diddle and Old McDonald Had a Farm. “The kids are already familiar with these stories and they love learning the dance moves,” Petipas says. “I’ve tested it out at some of the school visits I’ve done and it’s been a big hit.” Petipas is still brainstorming for the third book in the series, but it’s tentatively called The Cows Go Metal and would be accompanied by a much heavier rock song.
Eventually, Petipas wants to illustrate a graphic novel he plans to call Jimmy Bojangles: The Prodigal Dad relating his father’s troubled life. After his parents got divorced, Petipas’s father bounced around from job to job, in and out of jail and on and off the wagon with drugs and alcohol. The two reconnected towards the end of Petipas’s father’s life and had the chance to rekindle their relationship. “It’s a message of hope I want to share with children and adult children who may be distant from their fathers for various reasons,” Petipas says. “My goal is that my story of reconciliation with my father would help bring other estranged families together.”
After reading Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie of Toms Shoes, Petipas was inspired to donate 10 percents of the profits from his books and “moo merchandise” to Heifer International. “I wanted to do something that mattered with my books, so I started the Buy-A-Book, Give-A-Cow Project,” he says. “With every book or item purchased, readers are helping to provide real cows for families living in poverty. Each cow requires a $500 donation. With that money, Heifer International gives these families a cow and teaches them how to start their own cow milking business so they sell the milk and use the money to support their families.”
One thing that Petipas hopes people will take from his story is a “You’re never too old” attitude. “I hope they’ll be encouraged to follow their passions, no matter whether they’re 8 or 18 or 54, like I am,” he says. And as strongly as Petipas feels about being able to use his book for positive change, he mainly hopes that people will enjoy it. “I’m a big proponent of joy and laughter and families having fun together.”
For more information about Jim Petipas, visit thecowsgomoo.com or find The Cows Go Moo! on YouTube. •
