The father-daughter author team of David C. Pool and Jackie H. Blumenstock, both of Amity Township, is expanding the imaginations of youngsters with the new book series, "The Adventures of Browny Big Box."

They celebrated the publication of their first book in the series, "Making New Friends," which helps children explore the exciting possibilities that come with meeting new persons through the point of view of Browny Big Box.

Browny is a shipping box that springs to life through the imaginative powers of children he encounters in the course of his travels.

The 59-year-old Pool, a native of Morrisville, Bucks County, and a longtime veteran of the health care administration field, conceived of Browny through his work on another book, "The Big Brown Box, Volume I."

The nonfiction work studied the relationship between children and boxes.

"Every year at holiday time or every time a kid has a birthday, they will play with the things that came in the box for awhile and then they will gravitate back to the box," said Pool, who has a master's degree in psychology.

"We are sure the reason is that the box allows kids to use their imaginations and do what they want to do, as opposed to the play sets and everything that is pre-imagined for them."

In an effort to foster the development of children's natural gifts of creativity and imagination, he formed The Big Brown Box, Inc. in 2002, which published "The Big Brown Box, Volume I" the following year.

Blumenstock, 38, who worked in the marketing field, is vice president of sales and marketing for the family business. The wife and mother of two helped her father develop the Browny characters and the theme for their first book.

In the book, published through their company in May, a boy named T.J. works to overcome his fear of making friends in a new.neighborhood with the help of Browny Big Box.

Browny takes T.J. on a special adventure and gives him the self-confidence he needs to form new friendships. 

Blumenstock's son, T.J., 13, and daughter, Alyx H., 9, who had to undergo their own period of adjustment when the family moved from Pottstown to Berks County, were the inspiration behind the story.

Blumenstock said it took her and her father more than six months to write the story.

"We had to make sure the whole sequence of events made sense and that the character (Browny) was motivating the child reading the book the way we would like him to," Blumenstock said. "Then we had to bring in the illustrations to reflect the written text for the younger kids, to make sure they pretty much understood the story without being able to read the book."

The book, illustrated by Colleen M. Madden of the Philadelphia area, received a Mom's Choice Award from the Justfor Mom Foundation based in Round Hill, Va. 

Blumenstock and Pool hope to publish the next two books in the series in 2006. In addition to the books, they promote the imaginative development of children by presenting two school programs; Little Learners, for pre-K and kindergarten pupils, and the Just Imagine program for elementary school pupils. 

Pool and his wife, Helen, have four children and three grandchildren. He said his wife is a marketing and sales assistant for The Big Brown Box Inc.

For information on ordering the book or arranging a school presentation call The Big Brown Box at   610-906-3330 or log onto the company Web site, http://www.thebigbrownbox.com.