Sometimes people will say to me, “Well, why don’t you ever put people in your books?” My answer to that is, “You’re the person in the book.” The reader is the actor or the actress in the book. I always like to get some participation in the book. I don’t like to tell everything that I know about a certain subject; but rather, use that book as a jumping-off point for a parent reading to their child, or a teacher.
For instance, with Growing Vegetable Soup, I have a recipe for making vegetable soup at the end of the book, thinking that that would be an activity that big people and little people could do together. That’s another thing that’s often asked: “Well, you know, a little girl or a boy would not be planting a garden.” And I agree. They wouldn’t be planting flower bulbs by themselves, either. But isn’t it wonderful if you do find a big person that reads that book and then says, “Well, we could do that. We could make a garden,” or, “We could plant flowers.” So that’s the reason for my approach in all the books. I tried to tuck in a lot of extra things, which, at first reading, may not be apparent to anyone. But maybe the second or the third time, they might notice that.