No Such Thing as The Road Not Taken by Irene Latham

 When I present to groups, I often share the "When I Grow Up, I Want to Be..." page in my Dr. Seuss' My Book About Me:

On that page, 3rd grade me wrote "WRITER"... and also circled "mother," "musician," "farmer," and "veterinarian."  I wanted to be a lot of things! And so it may look like I have a lot of "roads not taken." 

book with a zoo vet!
Here's the great part, though, about the choice I DID make. As a writer, I can "be" all of those things I didn't pick in real life! 

I can write a farm book, and have, several times! 

I can create a character who's a veterinarian (and have!) so that I can walk around in that skin for a while. 

Being a writer is a way to take ALL the roads.

And now, I must get back to traveling... thank you so much for reading!

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Irene Latham is a grateful creator of many novels, poetry collections, and picture books, including the coauthored Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship, which earned a Charlotte Huck Honor, and The Cat Man of Aleppo, which won a Caldecott Honor. Irene lives on a lake in rural Alabama.