nell's daughters Kristin, Keri, and Rebecca loved to have their dad read to them. This led to a minor problem: they were fixated on one particular story, "The Saggy, Baggy, Elephant and the Tawny, Scrawny Lion." He read it so many times that he could almost recite it without the book. One time, in desperation, he asked them if they would like Daddy to tell them a story. In response to their enthusiastic yes, he invented a community of little animals who had very human flaws and reactions to everyday situations in life.

Much to his pleasant surprise, he discovered that situations in the stories were very, very effective ways of getting all the necessary parental messages across without evoking the usual reactions that such messages often evoke. For years, Tales from Misty Acres was unwritten. Prior to Christmas one year, he asked his oldest daughter what she wanted for Christmas. Her response was, "Daddy, I want you to write two stories. But one has to be a Christmas story." Thus, it was that Tales from Misty Acres became a physical reality.

To help those who may be curious, he set the stories on a farm that was less than two miles from where he grew up.