As a girl I enjoyed being alone. I drew and drew and drew, always fascinated to watch my own markings take on beauty and meaning. I made pictures of everything I could think of - a mouse with two tails, chirping birds in the apple tree, even people from other planets whom I visited in my dreams! At night, when I was supposed to be sleeping, I read by the light of a street lamp that came in through my window. I read hundreds of books. I won lots of prizes for plays and stories I wrote myself, as well as for my artwork. I didn’t know which I loved more - writing or art.
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Little Molly and Brother Paul
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When I grew up I chose art. I took my parakeet, packed a suitcase, and moved to Boston to become a professional artist. I did watercolors for schoolbooks and drawings for magazines. I filled up a giant studio with colorful paintings. Many people loved my pictures, so they bought them to hang up in their houses.
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In the midst of all this I got married and gave birth to Jesse, a very lively, outgoing baby boy. I soon became a single parent and found raising a child in the big city of Boston a great hardship. Too much hubbub and noise! All I really liked there were the trees and sky. So one day my little three-year-old and I said farewell to our friends. We took a plane to the Oregon Coast - a magical land where trees never die - where the wind swirls into your head - where rain and sunshine both pour down on you at once. Nowhere had I ever seen so many rainbows, sometimes more than twenty a day!
Jesse and I lived in a canyon next to a shallow, winding river where salmon came to spawn. We picked blackberries that grew in the meadow near our house. We explored rocky beaches and splashed in the ocean. We dug for clams that squirted water out of little holes in wet ocean sands. |
We wandered through ancient mysterious forests and found exquisite wildflowers and delicious mushrooms. Jesse made up a character named Jack the Marvelous, and I wrote down his stories as he dictated them to me. Together, we painted pictures of Jack and all his toys.
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| Finally, when Jesse was fifteen and our house was full of teenagers, I started back to my dream of doing children’s books. I illustrated twelve books about two little cloud characters, the Huff and Puff stories by Jean Warren. Then at last I brought my love for words and pictures together. |
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I wrote and illustrated a book of my own - The Magic Crayon. It’s about a group of second graders I had gotten to know. The kids were surprised and happy to find themselves inside a book they could hold in their own hands! I received an award, and from that point decided there were things I wanted to share with all children everywhere. This led to a Young Authors’ Program and more books - and now, more on the way!
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