Lester was spending his first night away from home. And what a difference between Auntie Belle's house and the one where he lived. Not only did she have broccoli instead of carrot sticks and purple soap instead of white soap — there was a tiger in the living room and a good knight upon the house!
But what Lester minded most was that there was no mother and no father at Auntie Belle's.
Any child who has or is about to experience pangs and the fun of a first "overnight" will take Lester's story to heart — and want to hear its reassuring happenings read many times.
Kay Chorao is a children's writer and illustrator.
She was born Ann McKay Sproat in Elkhart, Indiana, United States, into a middle-class, suburban family. She loved and was encouraged to draw at a young age. She attended Laurel School in Shaker Heights, OH. Chorao went to Wheaton College, where in 1958 she earned a Bachelor of Arts in art history. After that, Chorao pursued her graduate study at Chelsea School of Art from 1958 to 1959.
Chorao got married and had three sons before moving to New York with her family. From 1966 to 1968, she studied book illustration at School of Visual Arts in New York.
Besides writing self-illustrated children's books, Chorao has been the illustrator for many books by Jane Yolen, Judith Viorst, Jan Wahl, and Marjorie Sharmat.