PHOOEY KERFLOOEY AND THE BATTLE SQUIRREL by Kristen Joy Wilks

I featured the first Phooey Kerflooey book in July of last year, and when I heard the title of the follow-up, PHOOEY KERFLOOEY AND THE BATTLE SQUIRREL, which came out on June 3, 2025, I had to feature it too. Have a look:

Phooey Kerflooey has finally found a home of her own.
Too bad a raging squirrel found it first!
Rasputin the squirrel spends his time stealing snacks, pooing on the counters, and biting tender noses. Phooey’s perfect home has become a perfect storm of chaos!
Phooey will do anything for her boys. Almost step on the shiny floor. Mostly go potty outside. Bite a baby carrot in half. Maybe two carrots, or even three!
The boys want Phooey to chase Rasputin and save the day, but it’s hard when so many scary things stand in her way.

If only Phooey had her pink dolly to boost her bravery.
Can Phooey find her courage and chase that bad squirrel out of their lives forever?

Maybe tomorrow.
Or the day after that.
For sure by next week.
Phooey will be very brave . . . someday.

In our last interview, you said. “Having a friend make a book trailer for Phooey Kerflooey was awesome and working with an artist to make my own downloadable coloring pages was amazing!” Can you please tell us more about that process?

The artist I work with drew the full-color versions of Phooey Kerflooey and Rasputin that appear on the cover of Phooey Kerflooey vs The Battle Squirrel. We worked together for a number of weeks to decide which pose of Phooey I liked best and how Rasputin should look while attacking. I knew that I wanted Phooey to look scared, she isn’t a very brave puppy even though she is very big, and having Rasputin jump down from above seemed like a fun choice. This moment in the book is based on a real squirrel battle that I witnessed. In the real battle, the squirrel attacked our chicken Ewok trying to get the chicken food. The squirrel jumped on Ewok’s back and scratched and bit and ran around on top of that chicken in utter craziness! The squirrel even ran around Ewok’s neck, managing to cling to her feathers even when he was upside down. It was amazing! But Ewok fought back, scratching and pecking, until she chased that squirrel away from her food! This same artist also drew line art versions of each character that I turned into coloring pages. Readers can go to my website and download over twenty free coloring pages!

What a great story about the chicken! And Ewok is such a great name! In PHOOEY KERFLOOEY AND THE BATTLE SQUIRREL the story centers on the squirrel, aptly named Rasputin. How did you know the squirrel needed this name?

Rasputin’s name comes from a comment that Marcus and Conner’s dad makes in an earlier book about how the squirrel is very hard to get rid of. Rasputin the historical character was a famous Russian mystic from over 100 years ago who was also very hard to get rid of. Some accounts say that he was poisoned, shot, and drowned. I have experienced a squirrel getting in the house and rampaging. They are indeed very hard to get rid of. Squirrels are athletic and can run upside down under a porch railing (or on a chicken), can chew through walls, and seem to delight in stealing paintballs and making messes. My grandpa even had one start a fire in his shop!

Whoa, a squirrel starting a fire? That’s a new one for me! What is the best feedback you’ve gotten from a reader and why?

There have been several times that readers who were reviewing one of my books told me that either they were keeping the book to share with the kiddos in their lives or were buying another copy for a child. This is so delightful! Also, I had a young reader suggest that I should have coloring pages in Phooey Kerflooey vs The Fancy, Fancy Teacup. Well, because of her great idea, all of my chapter books have a blank page with a coloring prompt at the end of each chapter! And if a child wants to color a picture for that chapter again, they can! All of these end-of-chapter coloring prompts are on my website at the bottom of my page that has the free coloring sheets. Kids can color Phooey’s adventures again and again! That little girl had a great idea and now it is something I do with every book.

Here is something fun that a contest judge shared with me and told me I could share:

“Thank you for such a laugh out loud, clean book with a great message. I’ll be ordering a copy for work and for my church library—no donating of this copy—we’ll be reading it again and again at our house.”

–A 2024 Angel Book Award Judge concerning Phooey Kerflooey

What wonderful feedback!  What are three other books your readers would enjoy and why?

There are so many fun ones, but I’ll try to pick just three. Hmmm . . . I guess I’ll get around this by recommending book series and not just single books, ha! All of these books are Christian fiction and great for kiddos who love Phooey’s adventures!

The Dead Sea Squirrels Series–by Mike Nawrocki
2,000-year-old petrified squirrels rehydrate in the rain and then spend their time rampaging through a young boy’s school and telling Bible stories? Yep, this series is absolutely hilarious. The funniest Christian books I’ve read in a long long time.

Jack vs. The Tornado (Tree Street Kids #1)—by Amanda Cleary Eastep—2021
Four kids who all live on streets that are named after trees battle tornadoes; help a neighbor in need; and wrestle with lessons about God. This is such a delightful series! I absolutely love the author’s humor as she zips the reader into Jack’s adventures. He struggles with leaving the best fort in the world for a weird new neighborhood in town. Will he be able to make friends with the kid who is always reading, the one constantly on a walkie talkie, and repair a dilapidated old house to enact his “secret plan” to earn enough money to save his grandparent’s farm?

Ophelia Starcluck Saves the Galaxy (The Starcluck Adventures #1) by Kristen Gwen
Oh, my goodness this is a fun book! Love, love, love the chicken characters, the hilarious Star Trek references, the wicked weasels, and a young chicken learning what friendship is all about. Hilarious and hopeful all smashed together!

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