The Bakers' Patio Series of books started pretty simply. Kinscherf was outside with his grandson on their brick patio. His grandson started smashing ant hills. Kinscherf felt a pang of guilt wondering how the ants felt about the situation. So he decided to write about it and a series of books was born.

During character creation, Kinscherf and Brogaard were trying to come up with something unique. Kinscherf remembered an old music video from the Norwegian band A-ha inspiring the stark contrast for the illustrations.