Magical Message from Lita Judge, Author

I am excited to share a little background for the new book "red sled" by Lita Judge.    My last post was to share this little gem, and how happy I was to get it in the mail!  I quickly emailed the author to thank her for such a lovely book. With her permission, I want to share her response with you

Oh wonderful. I’m so happy you like it and thank you for writing!! It’s lovely to hear reader’s reactions. This story was a labor of love, something I think my imagination has been working on much of my life. 

When I was a little, I lived with my grandparents a lot in their old farm house in the Wisconsin woods. Our family had a tradition. If someone left the barn light on by mistake my grandfather proclaimed, “Alphonse must have done it.” If a mitten went missing, or a door was left open we all proclaimed, “Alphonse did it!” I grew up thinking this mischievous little character lived in a mythical cottage near our home. On wintry mornings I’d race outdoors to find tracks left in the snow by woodland animals and I’d search to see if I could find Alphonse’s tracks. I never did, but instead my imagination found a story. The little character in this story with the red hat is how I imagined Alphonse to look. Hope this story adds to your writing workshop.
I don’t think Alphe was really boy or girl, he/she was so mythical in my mind. But I went to sleep at night comforted by the fact that Alphe was out there somewhere, looking over things, even though Alphe seemed to create a lot of mischief. 
Thank you for writing.
Warmest wishes,
Lita


Thank you so much Lita for responding and sharing this wonderful story.  There is a lot of love on the pages of your new book!  I can't wait to share what our children learn from the "red sled" next month!