A bi-weekly feature profiling the talented authors and illustrators who bring children’s books to life.

Five and a half was a pivotal age for Barbara Joosse (pronounced Joe-see). She believed the world was magic and full of spectacular beauty and adventure, and that adults were too dull to appreciate it. Standing near a sunlit window folding her baby sister’s diapers she saw sparkles in the air and said to her mother, “’See, there’s the magic!’ My mother looked at me and said, ‘Barbara, that’s dust from the diapers.’ I thought to myself, ‘She really doesn’t get it. She’s hopeless. Adults truly are hopeless.’” From that point forward Joosse decided to go underground with her thoughts rather than have her fantasies pounded out of her by unimaginative adults. More…