Claudia's Book
by Ann M. Martin

"So this is my autobiography. Even though I'm not good at writing, it's been cool remembering when I was little."

My poor parents don't get it. My father is a lawyer and my mother is a librarian and they love books and writing and words, and they don't always understand the way I see the world. But they're getting used to the idea of having an artist for a daughter.

Because that's what I'm good at: art. Maybe that explains why I see things as a whole picture all at once, an image. Sometimes, when you're an artist, you see just a fuzzy, vague sort of image at first and it becomes more clear as you work. Other times, you know exactly what you want to create and then the hard part is making your art match what you see in your head.

Math and English and spelling don't exactly work that way.

I looked back down at my desk. What I saw was a piece of notebook paper with a stack of parallel blue lines. I could imagine all kinds of possibilities for that piece of paper, possibilities involving color and shape and angles and shadows.

What I couldn't imagine was my math homework

Claudia's Book
Published by Scholastic Inc. 1996
ISBN: 0590484001