Lightyear Entertainment did an animated movie written by Doris Orgel and she wasn’t interested in turning the story of Pegasus into a book. I watched the movie and wasn’t interested in retelling her story either. So when
Prince of Egypt
I was asked to write the “Classic Storybook” version of the Spielberg “Prince of Egypt” movie. As I had been a religion minor in college and have done a number of books with folkloric and religious themes, I was interested. It turned out
King Long Shanks
I had long wanted to do a book with Victoria Chess whose quirky illustrations of animals and children greatly appealed to me. She, it seems, wanted to work with me. She mentioned this to one editor friend who urged her to call me.
Child of Faerie/Child of Earth
This rhymed fairy tale is about the friendship between a mortal child and a boy of the faerie folk. The verse that begins, “He was a child of faerie folk, a child of sky and air,” just popped into my head one day. It had its own peculiar rhyme scheme. One such verse is
Miz Berlin Walks
My grandmother, Fanny Berlin, lived in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Every evening she took a long walk around the block. She was the inspiration for this book that is about a black child and an old white lady who tells stories to her as they walk. Cooper’s paintings are sensuous stories on their own.
Nocturne
A tone poem about a boy going to bed which I wrote for artist Anne Hunter after seeing her portfolio. I call this my homage to Dylan Thomas, because of the sensuous wordplay in the text. To make up the word “hullaballooning” it took me well over a week. Poems are like that.
Welcome to the Sea of Sand
This book is about the Sonora desert in occasional rhyme, part of a series of four Welcome To … books. It takes a lot of research to write a poem about a place. I have been to the Sonoran desert section in Arizona several times, as well as deserts in Israel,
Meet the Monsters
I was called by the editor at Walker who wanted a picture book on monsters. “Only if I can write it with my daughter,” I said. She was delighted and so Heidi got to work on her first book. We divided up the monsters (I got Nessie and the golem as I recall)
Musicians of Bremen, The
A retelling of the famous old German (Grimms) story, this was published as a pair with “Little Mouse & Elephant.” It was an ABA Pick of the List book and a Parent’s Magazine Best Book.
Little Mouse and Elephant
A small picture book retelling of a Turkish story. Segal’s quirky illustrations are perfect. Published as a pair with The Musicians of Bremen.