Today is a special day for The Girl on Diary of an Eccentric! She is thrilled to welcome Barbara Worton, author of Too Tall Alice. (You can read our joint review here.) This is her very first author interview, and she’s very excited.
The Girl: Is Alice based on a real person?
Well, Alice is a little bit of me. I was kind of tall when I was little, and even as a grown-up I can remember feeling really uncomfortable about being tall. Alice is also a little bit of a little girl I once knew. She was kind of tall and skinny and had that crazy curly hair like Alice. And Alice is also a little bit of every little girl or boy who thinks they’re different than everyone else. It can be tough to feel like you’re different, and I just wanted everyone who read Too Tall Alice to know that they are absolutely great just the way they are.
The Girl: How did you get the idea for this book?
I was feeling sad one day. I wasn’t having fun at my job, which is writing, and I told a friend. She suggested that I write a story just for the joy of writing, so I did. The story and Alice just popped into my head, and it made me feel happy again. It made me feel really happy when I read it to other people and they liked the story and liked Alice and the message she had for them.
The Girl: How long did it take you to write this book?
It only took me a few days to write Too Tall Alice. It took many months for Dom Rodi to do the illustrations and for us to work together to figure out which words went on each page and what all the characters would look like. It took a very long time to get Too Tall Alice published–years, in fact, but now she’s out there, and people are loving her, and that is making me very happy.
The Girl: What is your favorite children’s book?
I have many, many favorite children’s books, but here are those that are at the top of my list: Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Stinky Cheese Man, Where the Wild Things Are, Wind in the Willows, and all the Harry Potter books. I think they’re great.
Thank you so much for your questions and for reading my book. It really means a lot to me that people like what I write and understand the message that I’m trying to communicate.
Thank you for your time, Ms. Worton!
Disclosure: My mom is an Amazon associate.
© 2009 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.
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