I had the chance to watch a live interview that featured author Kate DiCamillo. It was the K-12 Summer Author talk series by the Library Speakers Consortium. The Library Speakers Consortium is a partnership of more than 400 library systems across the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

DiCamillo is the author of many well known books, such as the Mercy Watson series and the Deckawoo Drive series. “The Magician’s Elephant” was turn into a movie. “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” was adapted into an opera. She has written over 30 books.

She talked about her experience writing the two series: Mercy Watson and Deckawoo Drive. Mercy Watson comes in picture books and chapter books. The chapter book “Mercy Watson to the Rescue” is the first book in the series. The tales of Deckawoo Drive is about the adventures of all the people who live on the same street on which Mercy lives.

DiCamillo is proud of Chris Van Dusen, the illustrator. She thinks he is a genius who can show with an illustration where everything started with Mercy.

Mercy’s favorite snack is toast with a great deal of butter. DiCamillo says it is what Mercy loves the most, what motivates her, and it is a metaphor for love. The idea of this snack started when she drove her friend to the airport. Her friend had a gigantic piece of toast with a great deal of butter on it—she told DiCamillo that toast should have a great deal of butter on it. This is how DiCamillo got the idea of Mercy liking toast. When she heard her friend talking about toast with a great deal of butter, she knew what the book about the pig was missing. Dicamillo says this is how stories go; you do not always know the whole story when you start writing. If you do not know all the elements of the story, you can let it unfold.

I discovered DiCamillo’s books a few summers ago. I invite you to go to the library to check them out. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.