One spring day in 1999, I received a call asking me to speak to a fourth grade class on being an author. People from all kinds of professions were being asked to speak at schools around Marin County, California on Career Day. I happily accepted. But as the day grew closer, I worried about how I could talk about my book without explaining what the story was about. How would fourth graders handle the subject of a mother giving up her child? I called the principle of the school