Laurie Keller: Hi there. This is Laurie Keller, and I'm the author and illustrator of We Are Growing! I'm going to tell you a bit about how I came to create it, and then I'll read a few pages from the book. You're probably familiar with the popular series of books, Elephant and Piggie by Mo Willems. They're very funny, and perfect for kids who are just learning to read on their own. His fans were upset when he decided to end the series, so he decided to start a new series of books called Elephant and Piggie Like Reading, only they would be stories with new characters, created by other authors and illustrators.

I was very excited when Mo and his editor asked me to make one of the first two books in the series. Each book I write has its challenges, but this one was especially tricky because I had to use very simple words, but still try to make it entertaining. It made me appreciate Mo's ability to do that even more. I started writing and doodling, and little by little, the story came together. The artwork was created by scanning sketches and painted textures into the computer and piecing it together in Photoshop. All right, now I'll read you a few pages from We Are Growing! It starts out with an introduction by Elephant and Piggie, but I'm going to start where the eight blades of grass are sitting together, and they all hear a loud noise.

Boing!

One of them says, "What was that?" Then another blade says, "I think I just grew. Look!" And one takes out a ruler to measure, and they're all looking, and they say, "You did grow!" And they're very excited. The one who just grew said to two other blades, "I just grew all by myself. Cool, huh? I know, I know. I made it look easy. But growing is hard work. In fact ..." Ping! "Hey, I just grew!" That was another blade of grass. Then all of a sudden, all sorts of noises, bam, whee, zap, beep, honk, and they all yelled, "We are all growing!"

One looks up at another blade, the first blade that started growing, and says, "You are growing tall." He looks up and sees, "I am the tallest." "He is the tallest," one on the end says. Then another says, "You are growing curly," to one of the other blades of grass, and she says, "I am the curliest," and she turns to one and says, "You are growing silly." He's making a goofy face. He says, "I am the silliest."