and a reader. she wrote my manuscripts. she said it has possibility. there is a story in there but way too much going on. you have 3 kids, a grandmother, a grandfather, you got a bear, a snake, a wolf, and fox. a dog, cat, and a neighbor, way too much going on. if you d like to rewrite it and shorten it some what and i d be glad to look at it again. but that is not my grandfather s story. i can t do that. i thought i don t have a contract. i said i ll get rid of my brother and sister. [laughter]. and i ll keep myself. and i ll get rid of the wolf, bear, and snake and keep the fox because i like his voice. i dare say a little girl like you should be simply terrified of me. whatever do they teach children in school these days? whatever you are, you sure think of heap of yourself as she skipped away from the fox leaving him to prove that he really was who he said he was. before long she came to a tree there were flowers and she picked wild flowers, this fox fled up beside her. p
don t have a contract, i said, maybe i ll try to write something, never written a picture book before. i sat at the word processor, i ll write my grandfather books. all 16 pages. it is usually 6 to 7 pages long. i sent it to my editor anne swarts. she was at thow publishing books. at the time she was at dial. she was right out of college and a reader. she wrote my manuscripts. she said it has possibility. there is a story in there but way too much going on. you have 3 kids, a grandmother, a grandfather, you got a bear, a snake, a wolf, and fox. a dog, cat, and a neighbor, way too much going on. if you d like to rewrite it and shorten it some what and i d be glad to look at it again. but that is not my grandfather s story. i can t do that. i thought i don t have a contract. i said i ll get rid of my brother and sister. [laughter]. and i ll keep myself. and i ll get rid of the wolf, bear, and snake and keep the fox because i like his voice. i dare say a little girl like you sho
it is a long, long summer and i don t have a contract, i said, maybe i ll try to write something, never written a picture book before. i sat at the word processor, i ll write my grandfather books. all 16 pages. it is usually 6 to 7 pages long. i sent it to my editor anne swarts. she was at thow publishing books. at the time she was at dial. she was right out of college and a reader. she wrote my manuscripts. she said it has possibility. there is a story in there but way too much going on. you have 3 kids, a grandmother, a grandfather, you got a bear, a snake, a wolf, and fox. a dog, cat, and a neighbor, way too much going on. if you d like to rewrite it and shorten it some what and i d be glad to look at it again. but that is not my grandfather s story. i can t do that. i thought i don t have a contract. i said i ll get rid of my brother and sister. [laughter]. and i ll keep myself. and i ll get rid of the wolf, bear, and snake and keep the fox because i like his voice. i dar
the adults read to children. in my house, children read to the adults. imagine the confidence they gave me in my readings. i loved to read out loud. enjoyed it immensely. so i would read dick and jane all the way up to julius caesar. when i came to a word difficult, he would say work with it little sister. he wouldn t jump in and tell me. he would let me work it out so i did. i learned to jump into words. that built my confidence, grandmother and ggrandfather were from the old school. i can remember borrowing $25 from my grandmother. i was taking out my checkbook to pay her. she said no, darling, don t give me a little piece of paper. what did i give you. i said a 20 and a 5. so bring me that. they went to the light company and paid their light bills. they went to the department store and paid whatever. they went there once or twice a week to take care of business. the process of going through things, my grandmother would take me to the library. all along the way there were p
picnics. they used the quilts for everything, small ones and large ones. now today, those quilts are going for 25,000 and more. it was my pleasure to go to g s bend and had the opportunity to quilt with them. my next picture book, i will share this with you and it is called never gotten. i would like to share it because this is something that had been in the process for about 20 years. i have been asking every west african that i have met, did you miss us? what i meant by that was are there stories in your culture that talk about the ones who were taken away? did you tell stories? did you sing songs, poetry, any remnant of anything i could use to tell a story that comes from that side over the year where you looked and longed for us the way we looked and longed? in all those years, i did not find one story, didn t find one song. i am sure they are there, but i was unable to find them. i said okay, instead of whining and wondering, i ll do it myself. it is reason in free verse