I write picture books - both fiction and non-fiction, poetry books, and early chapter books. My books come out of my life and my interests. They feature people I know, or those I wonder about. They describe places I’ve been. But in every case, those people, places, and experiences are enhanced, enlivened, and changed by the power of story. Recently, I have been drawn to stories in history. Colonial Voices - Hear Them Speak, illustrated by Larry Day, is a picture book for students in grades 3 - 6. Each double-page spread features a poem and portrait of a worker in Boston on the day of the infamous tea party. You can hear the conflicting voices of Patriots, Loyalists, and in-betweens. Delicious details have been included in Larry Day's paintings.  Look for the whisper sticks in the Dame School illustration. Find the wag-on-the-walls in the painting of the clockmaker. Feel the tension as Sam Adams shouts, "This meeting can do no more to save the country!". As a graduate student, I lived in Boston and loved to explore the city and its history. When I began to write Colonial Voices, I went back to Boston, visited historic landmarks, read deeply about the period. I listened for the voice of the mid-wife, the dame school mistress, the shoemaker, the milliner, the blacksmith's slave. What did he or she want to say? What do they say to us today?