Ideas for books come in many ways. Most of them are just sudden insights. I remember when I wrote Brown Bear, I was riding on a train. I heard, “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” And I grabbed my pen. I didn’t have anything to write on, but I did have a newspaper. I folded the newspaper and wrote crosswise, “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” I thought for a minute, and I either heard or imagined, “I see a red bird looking at me. Red bird, red bird, what do you see? I see a yellow duck looking at me.” The pattern is there. The book was broken. All I had to do was write it out. It was finished in 15 minutes.
(In the video clip, Bill Martin Jr also sings the words for Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?.)
