Miriam Busch's new children's picture book Raisin, the Littlest Cow (illustrated by her husband, Larry Day). From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:Q: How did you come up with the idea for Raisin, the Littlest Cow?--Marshal Zeringue
A: Larry came home from work one afternoon with a photograph of a raisin, around which he’d inked a charming adult Holstein – the raisin was the spot on the cow’s back. (He draws advertising storyboards as well as illustrating picture books; this was from an ad campaign.)
“Here’s Raisin,” he said.
Ha. If that spot were truly raisin-sized, I thought, that would be one tiny cow. We had a moment of hilarity as we imagined this tiny cow running across a breakfast table, squirting milk into cereal bowls.
He handed me the art. “There’s a story here,” he said.
Record-screech.
“Absolutely not,” I said. I probably backed away. (Let me just say: I was ear-deep in several manuscript revisions, but even if I weren’t busy, anyone – even my husband - suggesting story ideas sends me running for the hills. Screaming.)
I try to write every morning just to warm up – I usually just ramble around for a few pages before I get to work on my manuscripts. And in my rambling that morning, I wandered back to Raisin.
I found myself asking “what-ifs”: what if Raisin was a calf? What would she want? What if what she wanted was connected to her size? I was...[read on]