Just Grace and the Double Surprise (2 page)

Miss Lois obviously gets confused really easily. I wonder if it would have been different if I had said
only
Grace instead? Or maybe Only Grace would have become my new name.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS CAN BE SNEAKY

Some children's books have lessons mixed in with the fiction part of the story. This is a good way to get little kids to learn stuff without even knowing they are learning.

I wanted my lesson to be "Even though you think you have a perfect plan, other people can still mess it up." I tried to fit it into the story, but I think it was too important and big for a little picture book—it's probably more of a chapter book thing, and I am not ready to write one of those!

MY BOOK

This is your sister, Mimi.

Mimi is great!

This is your house.

Mimi lives in the house.

This is the house next to your house.

GRACE lives in this house.

GRACE is nice.

GRACE and Mimi are friends.

GRACE is waving bye-bye. It's time for GRACE to go home.

This is Crinkles. He is a cat.

Cats are dangerous!!!!!

WHAT I AM WORRIED ABOUT NOW

Writing the book solved my Just Grace problem, but when I was working on it I suddenly thought of a new problem. Crinkles! How were we going to keep Mimi's new sister away from him? Mimi is completely allergic to cats. If you pet a cat and then stand next to Mimi her body will totally know it. In about twenty seconds she will start sneezing. It's like she has superpowers for detecting cat germs.

Little kids love cats and dogs. The new sister will probably be touching Crinkles all the time. She will be a walking furball, and Mimi will have to stay away from her. Poor Mimi. Maybe the new sister would believe my story about Crinkles being a biting cat. I'm pretty sure if you write something that's not true in a picture book it doesn't count as a lie.