One night young Joseph had a strange dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars all bowed down to him. When Joseph told the dream, his father asked, ". . . were not the eleven stars your eleven brothers?" Jealous and angry, his brothers nicknamed Joseph "the dreamer" and plotted to do away with him as the person who, according to the dream, would one day rule them. When the chance came, they seized him and sold him to some passing traders, who took him to faraway Egypt. Alone and enslaved, Joseph had nothing left but his faith in God and his marvelous ability to tell the meaning of dreams. Through these, he came to be a rich and powerful leader in Egypt. And one day, when their own land was suffering from famine, his brothers came to Egypt in search of food. As in the dream, they bowed down before Joseph. Many years had passed, and they did not know that the great leader was their brother. But Joseph recognized them. Would he choose to punish his brothers or to forgive them? Clyde Robert Bulla retells one of the greatest stories of the Old Testament with dramatic simplicity. The grandeur and adventurous sweep, as well as the deeper meaning of the story, are perfectly conveyed by Gordon Laite's beautiful illustrations.
Author
Born to be a Writer Almost as far back as he can remember, Clyde Robert Bulla wanted to write. Born on a farm in a small town in Missouri, Mr. Bulla's first school was a one-room country schoolhouse. One day his teacher asked each first grade student what he or she would do with a thousand dollars. Young Clyde answered that he would buy a table. His classmates laughed heartily, and his teacher was puzzled. “What I really meant,” says Mr. Bulla, “is a desk or other flat surface on which to write my stories!” First Stories Mr. Bulla's first piece of writing was titled, “How Planets Were Born.” The ambitious opening sentence was, “One night old Mother Moon had a million babies.” All through school, Mr. Bulla continued to write stories mostly, but plays and poetry, too. After years of gathering editor's rejection slips, Mr. Bulla sold a magazine story, then several more. Soon after, Mr. Bulla wrote a novel and a publisher accepted it. The Difficult Years In the excitement of publishing a novel, Mr. Bulla wrote two more books. Unfortunately, no one wanted to publish them. His luck took a turn for the worse when the publisher of his first book went bankrupt. For several years, he worked at a local weekly newspaper where he struggled with linotype, kept books, collected bills, and wrote a weekly column. Success! A couple of Mr. Bulla's weekly columns caught the attention of a well-known author and illustrator of children's books. She wrote to Mr. Bulla, suggesting that he try writing a children's book. He immediately sent her a manuscript for a children's book he'd written a year before. Within one week, an editor of a New York publisher read the manuscript,and it was accepted. The book was The Donkey Cart, published in 1946. Since then, Mr. Bulla has written over twenty books for children, as well as the music for several children's song books. About The Chalk Box Kid “When I was young,” explains Mr. Bulla, “I sometimes found it hard to cope in new surroundings, and I was apt to get off on the wrong foot. This is the story of a boy who got off on the wrong foot in a new school and how he tried to cope.” In describing the chalk garden, Mr. Bulla says, “I gave Gregory something I've always wished for: a big, blank wall that I could cover with my own drawings.”
