Hopefully the Scarecrow

“When Mr. and Mrs. Jim Darling named their first daughter Precious the whole town wanted to puke.” That line from The Beef Princess of Practical County came to me long before the rest of the story. I grew up in a word-loving environment. My father is the king of puns, spoonerisms, and wordplay. The idea of a character named Precious Darling was intriguing. Would she be precious? Or darling? Of course not. Life rarely works out that way. Precious Darling and her equally ironically named sisters stuck with me and begged me to write about them. (Of course they did. They’re that vain!) Other characters I write about have more realistic roots. Libby, the main character in the story, is…

SARA PALACIOS is the recipient of the Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Award for her work on Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match and has illustrated many picture books for children. Sara earned her B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees in illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where she lives with her husband.