Author Pam Muñoz Ryan had a wonderful, noisy childhood. The oldest of three daughters and the oldest of 23 grandchildren on her mother’s side, she says one of the factors that best prepared her for becoming a writer was having big blocks of unchoreographed time to play and develop her imagination. These times of “benevolent neglect” occurred on Saturdays where alternating weeks she was with her grandmother from Mexico eating enchiladas, rice, and beans and at her grandmother from Oklahoma eating friend chicken and dumplings.
