AUTHOR

A breezy look at the trials and triumphs of authorship from Lester (Princess Penelope's Parrot, 1996). She began her writing career at age three by inundating her patient mother with hundreds of scrawled grocery lists: ``And the fun part was that I could turn each list upside down and the words said the same thing.'' She is disarmingly candid about her frustrations with writing in school, the discouragement of having her first six books rejected, and the labor of turning ideas into finished works. Always apparent is her delight in the process of creation and in meeting her audience: ``This is better than a dream come true.'' Accompanying her words are her own cheery drawings, depicting herself with the same spiky blond hair and argyle tights from childhood on. Easy to read and reassuringly realistic. (Picture book. 7-10)