What is Pete Seeger like? What was it like to work with him?
He is a very, very nice, soft-spoken man. He’s very shy – which you wouldn’t think about someone who gets thousands of people to get up and sing. He cares very deeply about people. Working with him was very easy. How did you decide to start writing books for children instead of for adults? Is it harder or easier to write for kids? The way I got into writing for children was totally by accident. It never occurred to me. After I finished writing my first adult book, my editor commented to me that I had a very simple writing style, and she asked me if I would like to meet the children’s book editors. I did, and she asked me if I had any ideas. I told her I was doing research on slavery and she asked me if I would like to do a children’s book about slavery. It was one of the most fortunate accidents in my life! As for the second part of the question, writing for children is in some ways harder. There’s probably nothing more difficult than writing a picture book – you have to do so much in
