I was sitting on my grandfather's lap. I understood the part about getting the page you're reading done. Getting it done was exactly what I wanted him to do. Seven-year-old boys are not big on patience. Or poetry either. I was about to suggest we do the Three Little Pigs all over again. But when I craned my head to look up at him, I saw a tear forming in the corner of his eye.

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Backstories come to us courtesy of the Backstory blog, where authors share the secrets, the truths, or just the illogical moments that sparked their fiction. Brought to you by authors M.J. Rose and Jessica Brilliant Keener.