Depending on the ages of the kids (3rd grade? 6th grade?) I'd give more or less context regarding WWII. This book was SO FUN to talk about with students.īasically, I hooked them with Curious George ("DOES ANYONE RECOGNIZE THIS MONKEY? CAN ANYONE IDENTIFY THIS MONKEY? DOES ANYONE KNOW WHO THIS MONKEY IS?"), cracked a corny joke ("Is this a real monkey? No, silly! This is a DRAWING of a monkey!") and then told the story on pages 44-45. I work very hard at my desk, revising and revising and revising, trying to find just the right words that will be beautiful or fun to read. Even though I didn't grow up to be a composer, I like to think that my picture books are almost songs because the sound of words and the poetry of my style are so important in the texts that I write. Writing picture books came much later-after studying history in college, getting married, and raising three children. (This was before mountain bikes!) Pedaling slowly up my street may be where I learned perseverance, something all writers need when they are working alone at their desks. But coming home, we had to pedal up our long hill. My two sisters and I used to ride our bikes down, down our street, and then to the local dimestore to buy candy bars or meet up with our friends. I grew up in a house at the top of a steep street in Cincinnati, Ohio, the kind of street that is a big challenge when you are pedaling uphill on your bicycle. Kempczinski was a natural thing for me to do. Names and their pronunciations have always interested me, so writing about a teacher named Mrs. Leezie is also tough for people to spell. Sometimes my mail is addressed to Louisa, or Louisie, or Lewis, or Lois. Then there were four of us with the same name! Louise is a fine name to have except that people often spell it incorrectly.
Years later, my niece was born and also named Louise. This is a name that my family still calls me.
So early on, I was given the name Leezie. There were already two Louises in my family when I was born: my mother and my grandmother, Nana, who lived with us when I was growing up.
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