1. What do you see as the role of children’s fiction in literacy?
Fiction is an excellent opportunity for a children to stretch their imagination! I always hope my books inspire kids to create their own “worlds” and make up characters that have all kinds of adventures. I want my readers see that anything is possible…mice can write books, chickens can have sisters and live with each other, cats can visit museums and dogs can fly kites! 2. What inspires you to write and share?
I was an avid reader and loved going to the library every week. My two favorite books that inspired me to write my own stories were, ELOISE (by Kay Thompson) and STUART LITTLE (by E.B. White). The more I read, the more excited I became to come up with my own stories! I wasn’t part of the popular clique so I used my sense of humor to get kids to like me. I still love making people laugh! If I wasn’t so afraid, I would love to do stand up comedy. Being a children’s author allows me to get kids laughing which means the world to me. But, I also love sharing how amazing animals are so I wrote RAISING a HERO, about a little boy raising a puppy to become a service dog. 3. What message would you send to K-5 teachers and student writers?
I think the single most important thing for anyone who wants to write, is to be a good reader! The more you read, the better you’ll become at seeing what’s important to writing a good book. Passion for writing is another thing that’s necessary to have. If you’re not excited about telling your story, it will come across in your writing! You must also learn to accept criticism and be willing to do whatever rewriting it takes to make your story so good that people will want to read it and hopefully, recommend it to their friends!