In the spring of this year, author Jason Warburg published the third novel in his “Tim Green” trilogy, a dramatic mystery-meets-thriller series, in whose surface story, his protagonist is trying to track down any trace of his mother. The more Warburg came to understand his character, the more his series leaned into autobiographical elements.

Warburg’s latest book is a children’s story, also somewhat influenced by his mother, prolific author Sandol Stoddard, who wrote fiction and nonfiction for children and adults, publishing 26 books and many more articles, essays and poems.

“In our house, though, she was always simply ‘Mom,’ a dynamic presence,” said Warburg, “overflowing with ideas and opinions, reassuringly predictable in some respects and thoroughly unpredictable in others. Her best-selling book — still in print today, almost 60 years after its initial publication — remains that perpetual Valentine’s Day gift, ‘I Like You.’”

A children’s book. She actually wrote 17 of them.

“Over the years,” said her son, “as both my family and my writing ambitions grew, I thought from time to time about trying to write a children’s book. But besides not having a story in mind, I always felt like this was Mom’s arena, her turf. I neither felt like I could compete nor wanted to appear to be trying to. Like many young people, I was both drawn toward following in my parent’s footsteps and determined to forge my own path.”

Until Warburg found the inspiration for his story, “The Adventures of Lucca & Tirah,” which began as a gift he was creating for the grandchildren he shares with his wife, Karen.

The story surfaced during the pandemic, when the couple were watching their young grandchildren three days a week, so their own kids could keep working from home. All day. During this time, the Warburgs had three elderly cats, whom the children loved. One by one, they passed away.

“We experienced those painful transitions ourselves,” said Warburg, “and also with our grandchildren. Yet kids are so resilient. I remember very distinctly one moment when the second of the two cats had just passed away. We were talking about it with the kids one day at lunch, and my wife asked our grandson, ‘Are you feeling sad?’”

“No, he’s still in my head,” he replied.Warburg knew he had the premise for a children’s story.

“The idea that formed was a story that would immortalize the characters who had been part of our household for so many years,” he said.

“I realized I could do this best in a children’s book that would capture the cats’ personalities and also be something our grandchildren would enjoy reading. I worked to come up with a story where the characters of the cats are very much like the characters of the cats we had known all those years.”

A tale with a wider reach

While “The Adventures of Lucca & Tirah” began as a gift for Warburg’s grandchildren, it developed into a book that might be meaningful to all children. And, perhaps, to the adults who read to them.

Aimed at the early reader age group of 6 to 9 years old, which includes the Warburg grandchildren, the book published this season, just in time for holiday reading.

The surface layer of the story, says Warburg, is about the challenges of making friends with someone, while underneath lies an allegory about prejudice. The three cats are distinctly different in appearance and temperament and life experience and they have to figure out how to get along.

“I knew I wanted to write a story,” he said, “that captured the personalities of the cats my grandkids had known. Yet it wasn’t until I had developed the character dynamics that I began working the roots of prejudice based on the fear of the unknown into the storyline.”

Warburg recognizes that, when a grown-up is reading books to kids, it’s a nice bonus for the adult to feel like they’re getting a wink from the author that, while the child might not yet capture the subtext, the adult has an invitation to explore it with them.

Warburg also is pleased — “over the moon,” he says — with the illustrations of the book, created by designer Angela Caldwell, with whom he had worked in the past, while managing communications for a large nonprofit in Sacramento, and she was on the design team for a local firm.

Time passed, and the two lost touch, but Warburg, who had continued to “like” hundreds of her posts on social media, ultimately learned Caldwell had begun to illustrate children’s books.

“Seeing my characters come to life, to so accurately reflect who they are and the story they represent, was validating and inspiring. For someone who can’t draw a decent stick figure,” he said, “I am in awe of Angela’s talents.”

In 2018, Warburg’s mom died, at age 90, leaving behind more than two dozen books, including best-selling children’s fiction.

Having lived to see her son publish the first two installments of his adult trilogy, surely she would have been pleased and proud to read “The Adventures of Lucca & Tirah,” available on Amazon and at River House Books in The Crossroads Carmel.