An Interview with Lights on the Nile's Donna Jo Napoli
I had the pleasure of reviewing one of Donna Jo Napoli's latest titles, Lights on the Nile for the Historical Novel Society and was eager to chat with this award-winning author about her latest retelling. Thanks, Donna Jo, for sharing more about this wonderful middle grade novel. 1. You’ve written so many fairytale retellings, what sparked this one? Brenda Bowen, who was an editor at Harper Collins at the time, asked me if I liked Tinker Bell. Indeed, as a little kid, I adored Tinker Bell. I even defaced books by cutting her out, to play with (a shameful act, but one I couldn't keep myself from). She fascinated me. So Brenda asked me to write a Tinker Bell story. I normally start my fairytales by going to the earliest source I can find, so I naturally found myself asking where the very first fairies originated. And my search came up with Egypt. So that's where I started. Tinker Bell w...