From award-winning author Elissa Brent Weissman comes a collection of quirky, smart, and vulnerable childhood works by some of today’s foremost children’s authors and illustrators—revealing young talent, the storytellers they would one day become, and the creativity they inspire today.

Everyone’s story begins somewhere…

For Linda Sue Park, it was a trip to the ocean, a brand-new typewriter, and a little creative license.
For Jarrett J. Krosoczka, it was a third grade writing assignment that ignited a creative fire in a kid who liked to draw.
For Kwame Alexander, it was a loving poem composed for Mother’s Day—and perfected through draft after discarded draft.
For others, it was a teacher, a parent, a beloved book, a word of encouragement. It was trying, and failing, and trying again. It was a love of words, and pictures, and stories.

Your story is beginning, too. Where will it go? "Twenty-six children’s book creators reflect on the stories and art they produced in their youth. Each section includes a brief essay by the author or illustrator, images of the work in its (often handwritten) original form, and a bio that shows what came out of that work in the contributor’s adulthood. Many entries are amusingly self-effacing: Dan Santat remembers a tantrum at age five because he couldn’t draw as well as Norman Rockwell, and Candace Fleming recalls transferring the Newbery sticker from The Witch of Blackbird Pond to her own short story. Young aspiring writers and artists should find reassurance in the early foibles of those now successful in the field. But the volume also shows examples of developing talent—check out teenaged Ashley Bryan’s drawings!"