Article: I love to watch young...

I love to watch young children. I find almost everything they do and say fascinating wherever they are — in the subway, on a bus, in the park, at the playground, walking down the street, in the supermarket, getting dressed, taking a bath, or getting ready for bed. And often, I find what they do and say humorous. One day at the supermarket, I saw a young child have temper tantrum. The moment his Mommy said, "NO ice cream," the child screamed, "I'm so mad — mad-ddd at Mommy!" Then he ran and picked an orange from a pyramid of oranges and all the oranges went tumbling to the floor. The mother and child both laughed and the tantrum was over. Right then and there, I realized that this tantrum was a child just being himself — JUST BEING ME!

I took out my pencil and wrote down what this child looked like, what he yelled, what stopped his tantrum, what his mommy looked like, what she said, and so many other details. It was crystal-clear to me that the story of a young child going shopping with Mommy and then having a tantrum when you can't get what you want, is the story of every young child. I knew I had to write this story because it was part of the many ups and downs of every child's daily life, and I felt it would ring true for most young children. This is the story that became the first JUST BEING ME! book — I'M SO MAD! This title popped into my head I realized that what was happening for this child, and happens for so many children, was that she was so angry at her mother — but just for a brief moment. And of course, all young children as we all do, have to go to bed at night. The JUST BEING ME! book idea — not being sleepy — came to me one night when I was very tired and remembered a night when my children were young, and it was bedtime, and they were not sleepy. I was exhausted and they were jumping up and down and singing, "We're NOT sleepy!" That night, I almost fell asleep reading their bedtime story. One book did slip out of my hands. My children thought that was very funny. When I remembered that moment, I realized that most young children would think it would be funny in a story to have a parent fall asleep at bedtime before the child does. I began writing I'M NOT SLEEPY! with just that one idea.

I LOVE MESSES! also began with one idea. One day while visiting with a friend, her child began to draw circles in her yoghurt with her thumbs. Then she tipped the rest of the yoghurt on the floor, jumped in it, and sang, "I LOVE MESSES!" "That's a book!" I said to the child's mother as we all cleaned up the mess. I started writing that night. This story started out a mess of ideas. But after many months of writing, it was finally a story!

Then one morning, when I was getting dressed to go out in a big snowstorm, I remembered when one of my children got dressed his way before he went out in the snow to a birthday party — with his arms in the legs of his pants, and his legs in the arms of his sweatshirt, and sunglasses too. He liked the way he looked — and I must admit — so did I! That's where all the ideas for I'M ALL DRESSED! came from. I was thrilled when Nicole Hollander, creator of the comic strip Sylvia, which appears in newspapers across the country, agreed to illustrate all four books in the JUST BEING ME! series. Without a doubt, Nicole's dazzling, straightforward, yet humorous, art strikes just the right chord in young children. Simply put, they love her art!

I was also thrilled when Linda C. Mayes, MD, Arnold Gesell Professor at The Yale University Child Study Center and chairman of the directorial team of The Anna Freud Center in London, agreed to write a "What's Going On?" note for parents and educators at the end of each book. Linda answers that that question with clear, helpful, fascinating, and wise insights.

I still always take a pencil and a small pad of paper with me wherever I go. And I am still jotting down the many humorous and fascinating things young children do and say — some of which are already in the book I am writing now — and others which I just bet will show up in next book I write!

Copyright © Robie Harris