Karen Dugan author & illustrator
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On writing Ms. April & Ms. Mae- a fable:                                       
ForeWord Magazine Picture Book of the Year Finalist


     It started with three images:

     Driving along a narrow road in Maine on a moonlit night, we passed a fox trotting along the top of a stone wall. Very businesslike, she ignored our headlights and continued her way.


                                                    Where was she going?
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                                                                           The third was sad:

        At a stop light at a busy intersection, a dead fox lay on the grassy meridian. As the cars rushed back and forth the sun touched her rich fur and it too blazed with Judy's same fiery color. 

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(Put a dead fox where the cow is and you'll get the idea.)
  
   
      The second was about Judy, who is passionate about animals:
 
     The first time I met her she was furious over broken duck eggs she had been carefully watching, and didn't care who knew it. 

     Another time I followed her as the afternoon sun touched her red hair and turned it into fiery waves. 

    
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I could not bring this beautiful animal back to life, but I started to think: fox & woman, woman & fox. Could they be friends? Could they be like sisters? What would they do together?
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     In the following years, mass construction and destruction happened in our town. One forest was razed across the street from an elementary school, a whole forest gone, in one day. How many animal dens, burrows and nests were destroyed to make way for houses? 
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                                                               How do you explain to children nature doesn't matter anymore?
                                                               What if we, whether human or animal, considered ourselves a family? 
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       How will Ms. Mae keep Misters Iddy, Oddic and Dimm from taking her dear friend Ms. April's land?              
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