BRIDGTON – Inspired by the stuffed jungle animals at the home of their babysitter – who also happens to be a prolific writer of some 60 books – five Bridgton children have penned, illustrated and published a children’s book.

Under the guidance and tutelage of author Alice Anderson, Bridgton residents Sarah, Jonathan, Chloe, Grace and Patrick Beauchamp, who range in age from 5 to 13, can consider themselves full-fledged authors, having helped to write “It Happened in the Jungle,” a story about a wayward lion cub named Lester who got lost – and found – in the deep, dark jungle.

Anderson attends Pleasant Mountain Presbyterian Church, located on Route 302 in Bridgton next to old town hall, and met the children there. She babysits the children when their parents, Tim, a minister at the church, and Joanne Beauchamp, go on dates.

One night late last summer while babysitting, Anderson got the idea that a good way to keep the kids busy and entertained would be to have them collaborate on a book together.

Sarah Beauchamp, the eldest of the crew at 13 and a student at Lake Region Middle School, remembers how the project began.

“My mom and dad wanted to go on a date, so Mrs. Anderson said she could watch us,” she said. “And while we were eating food, she said, ‘How would you like to write a book?’ and we said, ‘Yes.’ So we sat down and started working on the book.”

“Because I write books,” Anderson added, “it just came out of my mouth, ‘How would you all like to write a book together?’ So that’s how we got started.”

By late January, the crew had finished their story and self-published 40 copies through instantpublisher.com, a Tennessee-based publishing house Anderson has worked with in the past.

Anderson is a former primary school teacher who has written 60 books in the last 15 years ranging from Christian nonfiction to Maine business profiles including a recent book on Windham Weaponry owner Dick Dyke. Anderson has never collaborated on a book with children, and she said it was quite the learning experience for both her and the kids.

“We started with classes on plot,” she said. “What is a plot? What’s a storyline? We’d talk about characters. How many characters? Who were the characters going to be? Did we want them to be like cartoons, or did we want them to be real? So everything was a group decision really. There was a lot of teaching going on.”

Anderson and the children worked Friday afternoons. At the time, the children were home-schooled and their mother Joanne appreciated Anderson’s literary expertise.

“As the process went on, we realized it was teaching more than just creative writing,” she said. “The kids learned that there are many different jobs in writing a book, and so it’s not just sitting down and writing a story, but you have to think through it very systematically. You can’t go too far ahead otherwise you miss some steps that are important to publishing a book and writing it properly.”

Sarah said the group’s technique varied. Sometimes the kids would write sections at home and bring their work to Anderson, who would critique it.

“She’d read it and say you misspelled this word or we need to improve this part. And then we would type it on the computer so we could edit it there,” she said.

Other times, Sarah said, the group would brainstorm the plot while Anderson, who would prompt the kids for further ideas of plot and character development, would type as fast as she could trying to keep up with the kids.

“One way we found worked really easy, is one person would say something like, ‘Lester woke up one morning.’ And then another person would chip in, ‘and he decided for a walk,’ and then another would say, ‘and he got lost chasing an ostrich,’ or something like that. So we put it together piece by piece,” Sarah said.

Anderson said she helped smooth the writing out and provided some filler, but that the kids did the bulk of the work.

“These five kids are used to working on things together. They’re a great family. They’re exceptional children,” she said.

The plot, Anderson said, centers on Lester, a lion cub, who was visiting his relatives when he decided to go for an early-morning walk to a nearby lake. He quickly got lost after chasing an ostrich in the jungle. Once his family discovered Lester was nowhere to be found, his Uncle Leo, a reluctant King of the Jungle, sent out a search party searching for young Lester.

An assortment of animals, inspired by Anderson’s collection of stuffed and porcelain animals that she has collected through the years, were sent out to search for the lost cub. Eventually, just after Lester prayed to God for help getting home, a parrot named Paulie landed on the very same tree trunk Lester had taken shelter inside during the night. Paulie and some other animals, with fun names like Huberta the Hippo, Giselle the Giraffe and Zoe the Zebra, helped Lester find his way home the next day.

The moral of the story, the kids write at the end of the 20-page book, is, “God always hears our prayers and helps us when we don’t know what to do.”

When they were done with the writing, illustrations and publishing, the kids helped promote and sell the book, as well. Their teachers at Lake Region Middle School and Stevens Brook Elementary School in Bridgton have bought copies as have friends and family members.

“I think that they’re dedicated. I’m proud of what they’ve done,” Anderson said. “I think that they learned a lot. They learned about the dedication required, they learned about sales and that not everybody wants to buy it, they learned how to write and take criticism and revisions and editing. So there’s personal growth. It’s not just a writing exercise.”

The sales-related experience was an especially good lesson, their mother said.

“This is a character-building exercise because they are learning that in our economic system people have the right to buy or not buy as well as learning to receive criticism, and some critique more graciously than others,” she said. “So the kids are learning how to respond and respect how things are done in our society.”

So what do the kids think about being authors now just like their teacher/babysitter?

“There are many steps to writing a book,” 12-year-old Jonathan said. “It’s not just making it up. There are many steps. Some parts were more difficult. Probably thinking of a plot everyone would like was the hardest part.”

“The hardest part was keeping it a secret,” his 9-year-old sister Chloe said. “And there’s going to be a sequel.”

Grace, 7, added, “It’s an appealing book.”

Patrick, an energetic 5-year-old, said, “It’s a wonderful book, you really should buy one.”

Anderson, who is in talks with school district officials concerning a similar summer-school class teaching kids how to write a book, is going to take a field trip with the five new authors to the Bridgton Public Library and Maine State Library in Augusta to donate copies. She also wants to work with the Beauchamp children to create postcards that they can send to churches in an attempt to sell more copies.

“We had a lot of fun with it,” Anderson said. “We still have some marketing left to do. But every stage of the process I wanted them to go through, from concept all the way through the marketing.”

Alice Anderson of Bridgton is surrounded by the Beauchamp children: Jonathan, Sarah, Chloe, Grace and Patrick. As a way to provide something to do while babysitting, Anderson worked on a children’s book with the kids. Courtesy photo