A hero’s journey
A lovable, bumbling hero with a brave heart, a big adventure, and friends waiting just beneath the grass.
Explore the books Read the origin story
The books
One Bug Harold adventure has been published. Two more stories are written and are being brought to life with illustrations. Stay tuned!
Join Bug Harold and the friends he meets along the way in a warm, playful tale of courage, friendship, and imagination.
A new adventure is on the way.
Another story is taking shape.
From Helen’s sketchbook
Meet the characters and places that make Bug Harold’s world an adventure.
.jpeg)
.JPG)
How it began
Bug Harold began as a poem in a South Florida high-school English class in 1987, inspired by stories of unlikely heroes and grand adventures.
Earlier that year, Aaron had seen Man of La Mancha and discovered the writings of Lewis Carroll, including “Jabberwocky.” Those influences—and a love of tales such as The Lord of the Rings—led to the first lines of a poem about a little hero named Bug Harold.
The poem paused for many years. When Aaron’s older daughter Maggie was about six or seven and beginning to love poetry herself, he rediscovered it and read aloud what he had written. Her response brought the story back to life.
Over the following years, the poem was revised until it was ready for publication. Helen had always loved the tale and brought a passion for drawing and painting. After a search for an illustrator did not find the right fit, the family recognized that Helen was the ideal artist for Bug Harold’s world. In a little over a year, she completed every panel, including the front and back covers.
Bug Harold and the Snapdragon is a true father-and-daughter collaboration: a story made with love, playfulness, and a belief in the power of reading together.
Meet the creators
Aaron Blaisdell is a Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience in the UCLA Department of Psychology and director of the Comparative Cognition Lab, where he studies animal cognition. When he is not doing science, he can be found reading, playing, and learning. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.
Helen Blaisdell is an incoming student at UCLA. She loves drawing, anime, reading, and storytelling—and she brings Bug Harold’s world to life with her art.