Susan Meddaugh Speaks about Martha Speaks!!

I had a dream come true today! I took Little Mekmo and two of her friends to meet and interview the creator of the Martha books and Martha Speaks, a FABULOUS children's show on PBS! Susan Meddaugh welcomed her fans in with a big smile and showed us all kinds of really cool things! We saw a photograph of the"REAL MARTHA" dog, the real dog who plays BERT, but is actually named Oats, but also called Sir Lancelot, in the book Perfectly Martha. We found out that he snores a LOT!!

We got to see how a cartoon episode starts out in black and white with only the main frames in place. Then the voices are added and the visual frames are created and filled in to match the story line. We saw the finished cartoon and compared it to the B&W one. Wow, I had no idea it was done that way!!!

Susan Meddaugh also showed two prototypes of a doll of Helen, the girl who belongs to Martha. Susan is working with a production team to create Helen "just right". It was so educational to hear about how Helen looked at first try, second..... I think we saw the fourth or so...

We got to see some of Ms. Meddaugh's original art, her office, and her studio! Best of all, we got to sit down and chat with Susan! This is when the girls got to ask her questions, eat cookies, and laugh! Our author hero sent each of the girls home with an autographed book!!

The perfect ending to a beautiful story!