My favorite pieces are the ones that pop into my head as I’m reading to my children. While both boys are now old enough to read independently – and they do – we all still love to pile into one chair for a few chapters before bedtime. This particular piece came to me while reading “James and the Giant Peach,” during the scene where 501 seagulls tow the peach across the Atlantic Ocean (for a fabulously geeky article about how physics students calculated how many seagulls would *really* be necessary to tow James’ peach, please click here).
I worked through many variations of the moon shape, and the butterfly from our yard last year turned a number of colors before I found just the right one. Finally, though, something wasn’t quite right…the string that tethers the moon wasn’t really inspiring me…until Christmas lights came to mind and suited the job perfectly.
While the verse and all the little pieces that came together are my own, I still have to thank Roald Dahl for writing with splendor and imagination…you really can never be too old to enjoy such a book.