Kimberly Burke-Weiner is a first-grade teacher in Tacoma, Washington. She hopes someday to be a full-time writer. When Kimberly was a little girl, someone asked her what she’d like to be when she grew up. “Maybe a ballerina or a doctor,” she answered. More recently, someone asked her about writing a children’s book. She said “Maybe I will.”

It took Kimberly 28 years and three hours to write The Maybe Garden. For 28 years she struggled with everyone telling her what to do. Then she wrote a story about it in three hours. People still tell her what to do, but now she doesn’t listen very often.