Sharon Draper: Hello, my name is Sharon M. Draper, and today I am going to tell you a little bit about my novel which is called Stella by Starlight. And no, it's not about the song.

Stella by Starlight was inspired roughly by my grandmother, whose name was Estelle, and they called her Stella.

When I was a little girl I used to spend summers on her farm in North Carolina and I used to listen to stories on the front porch late at night when the neighbors would gather. My grandmother didn't have much education, but she loved to read and she loved to write, and she used to write when she was a little girl in a journal.

When she passed away, twenty, thirty years ago, her last remaining journal was passed on to me. I didn't know what to do with it. I decided, after many years, to make a story based on my grandmother's hopes and dreams. It is a book of fiction, there is absolutely no truth to the story, except for the truth that these things actually happened in 1932.

So I have my grandmother's inspiration as the background for the story. She's not in it, but her spirit shines above it.

And now I shall read a section from Stella by Starlight.

Stella and her brother discovered their mother lying curled on the rain soaked ground. As Stella approached something moved in the undergrowth. Was that a snake? She felt an eerie calm come over. She rushed to her mother and squatted beside her. She saw what had happened immediately, there were two small puncture wounds on her mother's left ankle. They bled just a little. She turned to her brother who had started to cry. "Go get the doctor, it's bad. Hurry. I'm here Mama," Stella said. "I'm gonna take care of you, you hear?"

Stella looked back to the house. There was no way she could carry her mother that far. She leaned close to her mother's ear and whispered, "I'll be right back, don't worry." With that she darted back to the house.

She grabbed two old towels, her father's Sunday necktie, a half full bottle of whisky that she knew he kept hidden under the bed, a faded dress she'd outgrown, two blankets and a pillow. Then she filled a bucket full of clean water.

It took longer to get back because the load was clumsy, the bucket was heavy and she didn't want to spill the water.

Her mother was lying just as Stella had left her, but she was trembling now, her ankle was beginning to swell. At first Stella poured the cold water on the wound, watching as the oozing blood turned pale pink. Mama's eyes were open wide, registering shock. But Stella just kept rinsing the holes in her mother's leg. "The next thing I'm gonna pour might hurt a little more, but I gotta clean it as best I can."

Stella had no idea if she was doing the right thing or not. She opened the bottle of whisky and as she sloshed most of it on her mother's ankle, her mother cried out in pain. Stella simply said, "Shh." Then she held up the dress to her face. She ripped it into shreds and wrapped the bandage round and round her mother's leg. She secured it with her father's necktie, then bundled her mother in the blankets.

She soaked a piece of the torn dress with the last of the water and placed it gently on her mother's forehead. There was nothing else she could do. So she snuggled under the blanket, wrapped her body close to her mother's and held her tightly.

It would be dark soon. Where was the doctor? Where was Papa? She began to pray.