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- Luli Gray -- author interview
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- Eileen Heyes
Sometimes it takes a lifetime to write a picture book. Chapel Hill, NC, author Luli Gray has always had a beef with the Aesop's fable about the thrifty ant and the artistic grasshopper. Now, after what she calls "63 years of cogitating about it," she has written her own version and put her own inimitable twist on the tale. "Ant and Grasshopper" is a recent release from Simon & Schuster.
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Piece Description
Sometimes it takes a lifetime to write a picture book. Chapel Hill, NC, author Luli Gray has always had a beef with the Aesop's fable about the thrifty ant and the artistic grasshopper. Now, after what she calls "63 years of cogitating about it," she has written her own version and put her own inimitable twist on the tale. "Ant and Grasshopper" is a recent release from Simon & Schuster.
Transcript
Luli: We just live in a bean counter world. And the grasshoppers of the world don’t fit. They often are left out in the cold to die.
Narrator: That’s Luli Gray, author of a new children’s book that takes on some pretty adult questions about the human spirit and the value of work.
Luli: My latest and probably last book is called Ant and Grasshopper. And it’s my take on the Aesop’s fable. Which was my father’s favorite. … And I hated it. I hated that story where the ant is this mean, Scroogey sort of business person who just puts all his effort into getting rich. When the grasshopper comes and asks him for help, the ant just tells him to go away because he’s a worthless bum. And the grasshopper dies in the snow.
Narrator: Her version of the fable is ultimately rooted in life-long differences with her father.
Luli: He was an economist and he believed in the Puritan work ethic. And the...
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Intro and Outro
INTRO:Sometimes it takes a lifetime to write a picture book. Chapel Hill, NC, author Luli Gray has always had a beef with the Aesop's fable about the thrifty ant and the artistic grasshopper. Now, after what she calls "63 years of cogitating about it," she has written her own version and put her own inimitable twist on the tale. "Ant and Grasshopper" is a recent release from Simon & Schuster.
OUTRO:Related Website
