 Hi, I am Derek Barnes and I am the author of The King of Kindergarten, Crown and Ode to the Fresh Cut, and I am every good thing. This is my first time working with Gordon since Crown, I couldn't wait to get back to work with him. I feel very comfortable working with him. He's like a brother to me, we've been on each other for almost 20 years. We live in the same city, so it's a lot easier for us to communicate and to go over illustrations, and hopefully this will be our second hit book. Raising four boys, they are pretty much the inspiration for all of my books. I think about when I was growing up, I went to the library or to the bookstore, there weren't a lot of books where I saw myself on the cover, and it's been pretty much the same thing for them. Things obviously have gotten a lot better, but these boys have vivid imaginations and they come up with their own stories, and those books were not being written. I just feel like I have a moral obligation to not only write books for my sons, but also for other children who may feel marginalized or their stories are not being told, I feel like I have that obligation to do that for my boys and other black boys in America.