I’m Emily Jenkins and I’m the author of a number of picture books and chapter books, including the Toys Go Out series and Lemonade in Winter and Upside-Down Magic.
My father is a playwright. His name is Len Jenkin without the S, and I grew up going to rehearsals with him and sitting in the back of the theater and watching actors rehearse his work. And this was a very influential experience for me because I could see how a shift in staging changed the way the story was told.
I could see how when you added lights or costumes, the story changed. I could see how an actor being substituted for an old actor changed the way the story was told. It was like watching editing kind of in action. So, I think that was the most influential part of my life in terms of my relationship to literature.
