Ann Martin - Mallory Pike, No.1 Fan

In the end we cast Danielle as Valery, Bruce as Myron, Peter as Atlas, Buddy as Gordon, Wendy as Margarita, Haley as Jill, Sara as the now six-year-old Delaware as well as Danielle's understudy, and Tony as Ricky. l3ecca would play Valery's best friend Sissy. Char would play the mother. The mother didn't say much, so Char would be easy to replace, in case her stage fright kicked up.

"Memorize your lines," I told the kids just before the meeting ended. "I'd like to start working without scripts as soon as we can." On the way home, Stacey was quiet. "What are you thinking?" I asked.

"I'm wondering what your family will think when they see that play," she said. "Don't you think they'll be insulted? It is a little exaggerated." "If I didn't exaggerate a little, it wouldn't be interesting," I said. "It's called dramatization." "Won't they be mad when they finally read it?" "I won't show it to them." Stacey laughed. "Haley has already figured out that it's about you and your family. Don't you think she might tell Vanessa?" "I guess," I admitted. "But what am I supposed to do? If I can't use my life and the people in it, how can I write anything?" "Write about other people," Stacey suggested.

I threw my arms up. "Then it wouldn't be honest writing. It would be a big lie." "I don't know about that," said Stacey. "But it's up to you, anyway. Just be prepared for trouble." I pressed my lips together thoughtfully. This was a real dilemma. Maybe Ms. Hayes could advise me. Then again, maybe she couldn't. After all, if she'd drawn on her family life in order to write her books - and I was sure she had - she wouldn't have a problem like this. I mean, if your family is funny, kindhearted, and happy, and you write about them, who's going to complain? But a writer has to draw from the raw material he or she has been given, and, like it or not, I was stuck with the Spike family.

his sounds terrific so far, Mallory. What have you learned about Ms. Hayes from your other sources?" Mr. Williams asked me that Friday in class. He had allotted five minutes with each student, to see how' our projects were coming along.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "What other sources?" "Aren't you consulting other sources about the life of Henrietta Hayes?" "Why?" I asked. "I have the main source herself right in front of me. What could be better than that?" I'd seen Ms. Hayes just the day before and interviewed her again. We talked about her days at Ithaca College. Back then she'd enrolled in the theater department, wanting to be an actress (just like Alice Anderson), but when she discovered she could never find roles she wanted to play, she began writing her own. Soon she found she liked writing better than acting.

"I'd like to see some biographical data from other sources," Mr. Williams said. "Magazines, biographies, newspaper clippings. You might learn a lot more about Ms. Hayes than you'd expect. People don't always tell you everything about themselves. A good researcher does her background homework, too." "All right," I agreed.

At first, it seemed like a big waste of time to me. But when I thought about it some more, maybe Mr. Williams had a point. There were some questions that seemed too personal to ask Ms. Hayes. Anytime I tried a family question, Ms. Hayes started talking about something else. I couldn't tell if she wanted to avoid the subject, or if she'd truly become distracted. I noticed that her mind did sometimes jump around from subject to subject, in what seemed like a haphazard way.

After school that afternoon, I set out for the Stoneybrook Public Library. As soon as I walked in, I spotted Mrs. Kishi, Claudia's mom. She's the head librarian.

Waving to her, I headed over to the Guide to Periodica1 Literature section. The guides are a bunch of books which list all the recent magazine and newspaper articles which have been written on different people and subjects. I pulled out the most recent one and thumbed through to the H section, looking for Henrietta Hayes.

"Hello, Mallory," said Mrs. Kishi, as she returned two thick reference books to the shelf. "What are you working on?" "I have to write a report on Henrietta Hayes," I explained.

"Oh, the author. Her work is wonderful. She lives right here in Stoneybrook, you know," said Mrs. Kishi.

"I know that," I replied excitedly. "But how did you know?" "Librarians have ways of finding these things out," Mrs. Kishi said with a smile. "I have files on all our local authors." "You mean there are others?" I cried.

"A few. I think Henrietta Hayes is the only juvenile author, although there are a few picture book illustrators in town." "Wow!" I said. I had no idea! "Would you like to see the file on Henrietta Hayes?" Mrs. Kishi offered.

"That would be great," I said, closing the guide. I followed Mrs. Kishi into the office behind the main checkout desk. Black metal file cabinets stood side by side against the back wall. She pulled open the top drawer of one of them. "Hayes . . . Hayes .

Hayes. . ." she repeated softly as she searched for the correct folder. "Here we are. Hayes, Henrietta." Mrs. Kishi handed me the well-stuffed manila folder. "This should give you plenty to look at. I can't let you check this out, but you know where the copier is, don't you?" "Over to the right," I said. "That's a good idea. I'll copy whatever I can't read today. Thanks, Mrs. Kishi." Feeling as if I'd just discovered buried treasure, I hurried over to a couch in the corner of the library. Mrs. Kishi had just saved me hours of work.

The first three articles I read through didn't tell me anything I didn't already know about Ms. Hayes. Then I came across a real find -a five page article clipped from People magazine. The date on it was from last year. The article was entitled: "Henrietta Hayes: The Happiest Writer," which, I suppose, was a takeoff on her play, "The Happiest Day." On the first page I learned that an Alice Anderson TV movie was being planned. I must have missed it. I'd have to ask Ms. Hayes about it. Maybe it would be out on video soon.

The article had lots to say about Ms. Hayes's early career. I began scribbling down notes like crazy - all sorts of exact dates, names, and places that I'd been careless about taking down when I interviewed Ms. Hayes. Mr. Williams would want that kind of information, I was sure.

Toward the middle of the article, I stopped writing. I put my pen down and stared at the paper in my hands. I couldn't quite believe what the article had to say.

Henrietta Hayes's personal history stands in stark contrast to the sunny optimism of her books. A foster child from the age of three, when her parents and younger brother died tragically in a fire, Ms. Hayes never knew the tight family bonds that figure so prominently in virtually all of her fiction. The first time she lived in one place for more than a year was when she attended Ithaca College on a theater department scholarship. Even as an adult, her marriage to author G . N. Rogers ended in bitter divorce resulting in a fierce and prolonged custody battle over their only child, Cassandra. Ms. Hayes finally won full custody of Cassandra, whom she called Cassie. Sadly, Cassie was to die a mere three years later, at the age of eighteen, the victim of a hit-andrun driver. Despite her history of personal tragedy, Ms. Hayes presents to her readers a world in which things turn out for the best and . .

I felt too shocked to read on. I put the article down and gazed blankly at the bookshelf in front of me. This had to be some big mistake. The article couldn't possibly be about the same person who wrote, The Happiest Day, Vacation at Frog Pond, Ain't Life Grand, and all the Alice Anderson books. There had to be some explanation.

In a daze, I photocopied the rest of the magazine articles to read at home. Then I went back to the periodical guide and looked up G.N. Rogers. There were a lot of articles on Ms. Hayes's ex-husband, even though I'd never heard of him.