Today I’m wrapping up my ongoing interview about my just-published book Little Cat’s Luck:Question: In their starred review of Little Cat’s Luck, Kirkus says, in part: “[Bauer] crafts, with remarkably little text, memorable, fully understandable characters with achingly real worries and sorrows. Patches' ultimate understanding of Gus' needs is enchanting, appropriate for a tale that's as much a gentle parable as it is a novel.”Parables are stories meant to teach a truth or a moral lesson of some sort. Is that “lesson” foremost in your mind as you start a new story? Or is it something that emerges during the writing process?My Answer: Actually, I never begin writing a story with some “truth” or “moral lesson” in mind. I don’t even end there. Rather I begin a story with these pieces in mind: a character, a problem, a moment of climactic action and a very strong sense of what I want the resolution coming out of that action to feel like. Then I write to fill in the middle, to discover how my character can get from challenge to resolution. And finally, for myself, to feel that resolution when I get there. It isn’t that my story doesn’t contain clear meaning. It’s that the meaning is woven into the fabric of the story and reaches the reader emotionally rather than in the form of a lesson. Reading Little Cat’s Luck I hope my readers will experience compassion rather than be told how important it is. The experience, if it is deep enough, transforms. Lessons roll off.I was charmed, though, with the words “gentle parable” being applied to my story, and on one level it is that, each character having a distinct role in playing out a larger truth. But as I didn’t write Patches’ story focused on that “truth,” it’s not stamped in the middle of the readers’ forehead by the end. It’s just there to be lived.Though I don’t start my stories trying to pound home a moral lesson, young readers can still learn and grow through the experience of identifying with the characters. The Social/Emotional Learning Guide created for this book explores ways that educators can further explore concepts found in the book (such as diversity, cooperation, and self-esteem) with their students.