Patricia Polacco, beloved children’s book author and illustrator, and recipient of many prestigious awards, told me once about her Babushka, who used to tell young Patricia and her brother all manner of tales. Brother and sister would lean forward after a story was done and whisper hopefully, “Babushka . . . is it true?” to which Babushka would exclaim with gusto, “Well, of course it’s true!” and then, with a slight smile and a wink, “But it might not have happened exactly like that . . .”
