God's Favorite Tree

Hi, I'm Aisling. I'm a 10 yr old author in NH. The book God's Favorite Tree came to life as a campfire story. My family has a tradition that we interpret the crackling of the logs and the pictures in the flames as a story of the log. When it was my turn, I told my dad that we were burning God's favorite tree, and then I told my story. My mom and dad said they really liked it. So after I told the story, I worked on the text for about a month. Then I started drawings that I wanted to be in the book. I drew pictures of what I saw in the flames. Then I interviewed lots of artists to make my illustrations come to life. I chose to work with someone that lived far away so we had to work over the internet. We spent many nights reviewing drafts, and drafts, and drafts...to make them perfect. It was very exciting to go through this process. The whole project took about a year to complete but was so much fun. Here's a summary of the story... The devil sneaks into the Garden of Eden and steals God's Favorite Tree, the tree with which God would build the door to Heaven. Throughout the centuries God makes requests for the return of the tree, but the devil delays giving back the tree in pieces. The remnants of the tree end up being the centerpieces of my favorite Old Testament characters and New Testament stories. Our family priest is the minister of Wake Forest University and he calls it a powerful metaphor of God's love for Man. He reads it with college students! That's so cool!