> Studying the opinions and physical responses that her stories elicited made her feel like a literary detective; she called the exercise chasing “leads.” She l

> Studying the opinions and physical responses that her stories elicited made her feel like a literary detective; she called the exercise chasing “leads.” She later declared that children were the true authors of many of her books: she was “merely an ear and a pen.” This was the most fascinating detail to me about Brown’s writing process. She was essentially doing “user testing” with her drafts — observing how children responded to see what worked and what didn’t.