For Linda Sue Park, it was a trip to the ocean, a brand-new typewriter, and a little creative license. For Jarrett J. Krosoczka, it was a third-grade writing assignment that ignited a creative fire in a kid who liked to draw. For Kwame Alexander, it was a loving poem composed for Mother’s Day–and perfected through draft after discarded draft. For others, it was a teacher, a parent, a beloved book, or a word of encouragement. It was trying, and failing, and trying again. It was a love of word and pictures and stories.

Our Story Begins presents some of today’s foremost children’s authors and illustrators as their quirky, smart, vulnerable, youthful selves, revealing young talent, the storytellers they would someday become, and the creativity they inspire today in kids everywhere.

Your story is beginning too. Where will it go?