Hi everyone,
Yesterday I received a most delightful gift from a kind woman I haven’t met. KATHERINE WHITE lives in Annapolis, Maryland and her hobby is refacing clocks. Because THE BOY WITH A DRUM is a family favorite, she chose it for one of her projects.

Catherine told me by phone recently, “We purchased the book for Christmas in 1969 or 1970.” That would be the first or second year after THE BOY WITH A DRUM was published. For her 1 1/2-year-old son NOEL, she also bought a drum like the one in the story. Already blessed with a great sense of rhythm, Noel liked the book and drum and by 7 his greatest treasure was a set of drums picked up at a garage sale. From there, Noel has gone on over the years to become a musician, has done stage set-ups with HERBIE HANCOCK and STING, and today has his own studio. Redheaded boys run in the family, like the boy in the book. When grandson GUS came along, he got his own copy of THE BOY WITH THE DRUM. Now Catherine’s great-grandson, NATHAN, has received his own copy of my first book, making it four generations Catherine’s family who have met my little boy marching down the road with a RAT-A-TAT-TAT-A-TAT, RUM-A-TUM-TUM.

Catherine White, thank you! I am honored and delighted. You have made me very happy.