Honestly, I admired her so much that I thought if I ever met her, I would be so star-struck I wouldn’t be able to speak, quite literally. Because I had met Morris Sendak once. I think you call Maurice, Maurice Sendak.
And I just gabbled. I mean, you know, she’s a sort of Maurice Sendak kind of person in my life. So yes, I did know of her, but it was never in my wildest dreams that she would illustrate a book of mine…never in my wildest dreams. And, of course, I had said I was never going to write again. My editor had sent some work to Helen before, not just manuscripts of mine, but manuscripts of other authors whom she edits, and Helen had turned them all down.
And then she sent this particular text and Helen said yes. And I was on vacation at the time in a very sedate hotel on an island far off the coast of Australia and I-I-I mean, I did windmills around the foyer and I just went mad…and my arms were out and I was going “Whooooo,” like this. It was really embarrassing. I was beside myself, absolutely beside myself. And then and then the artwork, you know, began to come in and we were just swooning over the artwork.
I just — I can’t believe this book. I cannot believe that she and I have done this book together. It means so much to me, the book itself, but the fact that she has lifted, you know, my text which I’m pleased with. Let me be honestly arrogant here. I’m very pleased with the text.
But that she has just lifted it into this, you know, stratosphere that is up there and has made something magical that I feel people are going to be saying to their babies in the car, even when the book isn’t there, and that grandparents are going to be saying to their grandchildren in sixty and seventy years time. They’re going to remember the book and reading it. It’s that kind of book because I’ve been so lucky enough to have Helen illustrate it.
