The original I made when I was a little kid. Then I saw it later and my mom had saved it, and I decided, “You know, this could make a good children’s book.” It had this sort of gut appeal to the kid that was still the kid inside me.
The only words in it were “no” and “David.” So, I felt, “Well, 32 pages of ‘no’ and ‘David’ – that’s going to get a little monotonous.” I wanted to expand on the text, so I tried all sorts of different things. And what emerged was this idea of these timeless ways moms have of saying “no.” My mom and my mom’s mom and my mom’s mom’s mom have always said, “Don’t play with your food,” and things like that.
