The Kissing Hand (Child & Family Press, 1993) tells the story of Chester, a raccoon who is having separation issues as he begins school. Mrs. Raccoon soothes him with an old raccoon family secret – the kissing hand. She tenderly places a kiss in the center of Chester's paw and tells him that whenever he misses her he can place his paw on his cheek and feel her kiss. In return, Chester gives his mother a kissing hand of her own.

Already a contemporary classic, Penn got the inspiration for The Kissing Hand from something that happened when she was with her daughter in a park near her home, but what's really inspiring is Penn's own story. Working through illness and pain, she has carved out a career for herself as one of our most beloved modern children's book authors while raising three happy, well-adjusted children. Although her own kids are now grown, Penn still sees the world through the eyes of her young readers.

Ballet and Books
Even as a child, Audrey Penn had a gift for storytelling. Her teachers recognized this and encouraged her to write. But she had also been born with a painful form of arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which occasionally debilitated her and caused her to experience a lot of pain. As part of her pain management regimen, she started ballet.

"The dancing was basically physical therapy," says Penn. "I became an obsessive dancer because the only time I didn't hurt was when my muscles were warm."

Physical therapy or no, Penn also had a natural gift for dance that, combined with hours of practice she put herself through, brought her to the professional level. Among the troupes she performed with were the New York City Ballet, the National Ballet and the Stuttgard Ballet in Europe. Later she went into coaching, helping athletes from ice skaters to professional football players hone their athletic skills through ballet training. In the early 1970s, Penn was dance coach to the U.S. Figure Skating Team, helping them to prepare for the 1973 Pan American Games, and she was dance coach for the U.S. Gymnastics Team in 1974 and 1975.

In 1972, in the midst of dancing and coaching, Penn's first child, Garth, was born. Two years later, she started writing her first children's book, Happy Apple Told Me (Independence Press, 1975). About that time, says Penn, dance ceased to be a help for her arthritis. Her symptoms worsened to the point that she had to quit her dance career altogether. Through most of 1979 and 1980 Penn was confined to her bed, undergoing numerous surgeries to replace her affected joints. She and her husband, Joel, also had a second son, Jayme-Stowe, in 1982, and a daughter, Stephanie, three years later.

A New Career
After worsening arthritis symptoms forced Penn to give up her career in ballet, she decided to focus on her children's writing. "I spent so much time reading to my children and I found I liked being in a children's world," says Penn. "I also loved working in children's literature and really wanted to make a career out of it."

Focusing on writing for children also took Penn out of her physical self. Dancing is as much about creativity as it is about movement, says Penn, and she couldn't live without the creative expression, even if she was forced to forgo the physical aspects of her artistic side. It wasn't easy, any more than it is for any parent trying to juggle three children and work. Penn, however, took advantage of the talents of the teenagers in the neighborhood, recruiting them to help her deal with her children, even if she was right there in the room with them. It was beneficial to both – helping Penn save her physical strength while giving a little income to the teens who came to help out.

"My philosophy has always been to put my children first, but I also needed to do what I could to get out of myself," says Penn. "This is particularly important if you're dealing with a chronic illness. Just being a mom was not enough to help me forget the pain. I think my work actually helped make me a better parent."

This arrangement also led Penn to become a sort of foster mother to one teen who came from a difficult living situation. Tracey eventually moved in with the family and Penn still considers her a daughter. Penn dedicated the book, Feathers and Fur (Child & Family Press, 1999), which is about fostering, to Tracey.

The Kissing Hand
Penn's second book, Blue Out of Season (Great Ocean Pub., 1985), won a Very Special Arts Recognition award, but it was The Kissing Hand that made her a household name. Its inspiration was a combination of being in the right place at the right time and of having the issue of separation anxiety hanging heavily over her at the time.

"My daughter was just starting kindergarten, but it was an unusual situation," says Penn. "She was only 4, but she was hearing impaired and they were set up for hearing impaired children. Because she was so young, she was having severe separation issues, as was I.

"While we were going through this, we were on a train at our local park one day when I saw a mother raccoon rubbing her scent on her baby's hand and then rubbing the baby's hand on his face so he could smell his mother. It looked like she was kissing his hand. Raccoons do this so that when they have to leave their baby, to hunt or whatever, the baby can take comfort from the scent of their mother. I decided to try a version of what the raccoons were doing to help solve the problem with my child, so I kissed Stephanie's hand and told her when she needs a kiss from Mommy to just put it on her face. Then I figured if this works for my kid, who really has strong apron strings syndrome, it would work for anyone."

Now, besides being a perennial New York Times bestseller, The Kissing Hand was recently selected by the U.S. Army to distribute to their troops with families.

In her book, Mystery at Blackbeard's Cove (Tanglewood Press, 2004), Penn is targeting a little older audience, ages 9 through 12. To ensure that the central actions at the heart of the mystery were realistic, Penn "borrowed" 4th and 5th grade students from the local school to act out the actions of the children in the book – including breaking into a church – and wrote down all of their dialogue and mishaps. Her efforts have given the book an almost visual feel, almost like a choreographed dance – no stretch for this former ballerina.

It's all in a day's work for Penn. Just as she used focus groups of real children – as well as her own actual children – to help her craft her stories for the very young, she's committed to making her chapter books just as compelling and engaging as her read-a-longs.

"People often ask me when I'm going to write a book for adults," says Penn. "The adult world is harsh enough, especially when you're living with an illness. I have no desire to move out of the children's world."