Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults
My dear friend and neighbor (well, two towns away) illustrator Ruth Sanderson called me up. We had done a number of books together including SLEEPING BEAUTY and WHERE HAVE THE UNICORNS GONE. She draws gorgeous horses. Owns at least one horse these days. “I want to do a horse lullabye,” she said
I don’t actually remember how this book started. Either the editor suggested it or Andy Fusek Peters did. The only thing I know is that we all wanted a companion book to HERE’S A LITTLE POEM which had gotten sterling reviews, won some awards, and looked to become a minor childhood classic.
After my picture book on Hans Christian Andersen came out (The Perfect Wizard), editor Steve Meltzer and I cast about for a follow-up. I suggested J. M. Barrie, Mark Twain, L. Frank Baum, Beatrix Potter, Rudyard Kipling, Louisa May Alcott. As you can see, we settled on Barrie. I collected about
I was in the doctor’s office years ago, waiting for him to come into the room, and reading the Smithsonian Magazine. In it was a story about East Coast women who moved west to live to the Nebraska territory. Often these women went crazy because there were no identifiable sounds there. It was
I was visiting Simon & Schuster and just saying goodbye to my wonderful editor, Alexandra Cooper after a long and thoughtful meeting. Standing at the door, ready to leave, I said, “Is there anything you would love to see, a book you’d always wanted to have.”
The idea for this book began with illustrator Jim Burke. We had done several books together and he was a big fan of Wagner’s. I had been a huge Brooklyn Dodgers fan in my youth, and later on a Boston Red Sox fan when we moved to Massachusetts. But around the
A board book in the How Do Dinos… series.
A board book in the How Do Dinos… series.