A secret about
Words 

Kids often ask, “What is your favorite color?” An artist uses many colors, just as a writer uses many words.  Would you ask a writer, “What is your favorite word?”

I do love words.  That is something I got from my mother.  She is a poet.  She is the one who showed me how words can sing.  She always read out loud to my sister and brother and me.  She read poems and stories and no matter what, the words sounded wonderful, as if they tasted good in her mouth.

She could even recite “The Jabberwocky” in French.  That is a famous nonsense poem in Through the Looking Glass. In English or French, either way, the words were a pure, strange music.

If you want to write, you need to love words and playing with words.  That’s pretty basic.  We need to enjoy the way words sound.  Words can burble and squeak and jostle around.  They can bump together, or they can flow.

When I am working on the words for a picture book, I know other Moms will be reading them out loud.  Dads too, grandmas and grandpas, uncles, aunts, storytelling librarians, teachers, and kids are going to read the words out loud.  So I have to test the words first.

I spend a lot of time reading and repeating my words out loud.  Alone in my studio, driving the car, even out for a walk, I am muttering and murmuring. Someone may think, “There goes that odd little author talking to herself again.” But I’m finding out how the words feel in my mouth.  I’m finding out how they sound.  I’m finding out if the words like being next to eachother, or not.  I’m finding out how the words want to sing.