"WE ARE A STRONG PEOPLE"

Hi, Paterson! How did you come to discover and choose the ten children that feature in your book?

- 

I had in mind a number of grownups of African or mixed-heritage descent who had achieved extraordinary things in big and seemingly small ways. I could have chosen ten others, but the world of these particular ten immediately appeared to present great stories from a ten-year-old's world view.

Do any of the children in any way remind you of yourself, and your experience, when you were a child?