If you’re a Cheerios fan, it’s hard to miss Laurie Isop’s new book.

Isop, who lives in the Spring Lake area east of Renton with her family, is the author of “How Do You Hug a Porcupine?” That story about prickly people won her $5,000, the top prize in the Third Cheerios New Author Contest last year.

But she and everyone else had to wait a year to see the book nestled in Cheerios boxes – all three million of them – on the nation’s food shelves. Books from the previous year’s winner were in stores when Isop won the contest.

The Cheerios boxes with her book have been out since mid-March; she’s noticed them locally at Fred Meyer and QFC and she has received reports from Facebook about her book from family and friends in Virginia and Boston.

She went on a “field” trip to the Fred Meyer on Benson Road, video camera in hand, when her book was “published.” She filled up a shopping cart with Cheerios boxes.

To see her book “was thrilling,” said Isop.

Right now, Isop, a children’s author, is shopping for an agent. She has four or five different books – all children’s stories  – in various stages of production, including ones ready to go.

“I really love the picture book,” she said. “I am passionate about those.”

In an interview with the Renton Reporter last year, Isop said her book is geared to 3- to 6-year-olds. But the inspiration came from a more adult world. She was faced with a “relatively difficult personal situation” with a “prickly” person, she said, while working on a book.

“I refer to those people as porcupines,” she said. “It’s hard to get close to prickly people.”

And, she’s passionate about Cheerios. Has been since she was 3 or 4 years old.

“I was born and raised with Cheerios,” she said. “It’s a good healthy choice.”