“Remember, show, not tell! Write what you feel, kids,” Mrs. Douglas announced to the class. “If you’re mad, write mad. If you’re sad or you’re worried, write sad and worried.” I was all those things. I thought about Uncle Ming and his black eye and the way his voice rose and fell like a curtain when he said, What do I do, buddy? They’re going to kill me.… But when I put my pencil down onto the paper, do you know what marched onto the page? Puppies and houses.
