Ann Blades, 1947-

"When Kids Can Press suggested that I do an ABC book, I started by looking at a lot of alphabet books in the library to see what had already been done. I made long lists of possible words for each letter, and spent a couple of months thinking about a book. Finding a unifying theme for 26 words that would interest young children and provide for interesting illustrations was far more difficult than I had imagined. It was summer time, and I was doing Crescent Beach paintings for a show at the Bau Xi Gallery in Vancouver. One day while I was painting the idea of a book about a day at the beach just came to me. I quickly went through the difficult letters - quvxy and z, and realized that the theme would work. It was an exciting day. The problem letters were taken care of, z would provide a quiet ending to the book, and the paintings were ones that I would really enjoy doing."

(From Ann Blades's acceptance speech upon winning the first Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award on November 17, 1986. Published in: Newsletter, Spring 1987, volume 9, no. 1. [n.p.] International Board on Books for Young People - Canadian Section, 1987.)