Learning Agile is the fifth book we’re writing for O’Reilly (or the ninth, if you include the enormous second and third editions!), but it’s our first animal book. So we were extremely excited this week when our marvelous editor, Mary, sent us the cover to review.

Have a look:

Wow.

I’m not sure why it only just struck me that the book will be in the same series as Learning Perl, which I believe was the first O’Reilly book that I bought back in 1994 when I was studying computer science at CMU. The animal is a black lion tamarin, a tiny primate that weighs just half a kilogram. Apparently, it’s so endangered that there will be far more pictures of it on our book covers than actual animals in the wild. They do have very agile little hands, and apparently they’re good at working in groups, so it seems like a fitting animal.

Jenny and I are really excited about this book. We’re about two thirds done with it. We’d probably be finished by now, but we had to take a break to push third editions of our bestselling titles Head First C# and Head First PMP out the door. But we’re jumping back into it, and finishing the last few chapters. We’ve also assembled a phenomenal tech review team, possibly the best that we’ve had for any of our books. They’ve already given us some fantastic feedback, and we’re really optimistic that this will be a great way to learn about agile.

The book is due out early next year. I hope you’re as excited about it as we are!