I first met Miss
Bindergarten on Halloween day, 1993. She was introduced
to me in a letter by her creator, Joseph Slate. He wrote:
Originally, I
thought it was enough for children to see that Miss Bindergarten was
just as ordinary as they; there is nothing mysterious or fearful about
being a teacher. Last week I had a breakthrough. Why not make her as
awkward and nervous as the children themselves? It would be more amusing,
and they would feel a bit superior and far more willing to attend school
with a not-so-perfect woman who keeps a cat and rescues a hamster.
Clearly, Joseph Slate
did not envision Miss Bindergarten as a dog.
 sBut
as I read and reread his enclosed manuscript, I began to see my border
collie, Pumpkin, in the role of Miss Bindergarten, with a classroom full
of alphabetical animals. After surprisingly few adjustments to the manuscript,
made jointly by Joseph, Donna Brooks, our editor at E.P. Dutton and myself,
Miss Bindergarten became a dog!
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Pumpkin has had a long career as a model in my books.
She made her debut, carved in linoleum, in my first book, A Year of
Birds. I've tried to include her, like a lucky talisman, in every book
since. There are a few where Pumpkin just didn't fit in, and several
where she has only a cameo role. In Come With Me, Pumpkin appears
as both the main character of the puppy and as the mother dog.
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had her first starring role in A Garden Alphabet, by Isabel
Wilner. Again the character was originally meant to be human, but Pumpkin
insisted that if the gardener's best friend was going to be a frog, only
she was right for the part of the gardener.
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Now Pumpkin has won the part of Miss Bindergarten.
She sees her new job as her most important challenge to date, and hopes
that all her experiences with children will help her succeed.
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What kinds
of animals are Quentin, Ursula and Xavier?
  
Quentin Wend is a quokka.
A quokka is a marsupial from Australia. He is a relative of the wallaby
and the kangaroo.
Ursula Crewe is a Uakari
monkey. Uakaris live in the treetops in South America. They like to
eat fruit and and really have this bright red hair and pink
skin.
Xavier Roe is a xenosaurus.
He is also from South America. He is a nocturnal lizard who eats insects
and lives beneath the roots of trees.
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