Sydney: Ohhh! (sympathetically)

Julianne: I know. It was the first time he'd ever done that. Little kids are so confident until this one point – and [then] they start to see themselves as different. It's heartbreaking, but so touching. How do you move through this? How do you explain to them that there's always going to be something you don't like necessarily – and that it might not even go away when you grow up?

Sydney: That was the thing I loved the most about this book! Some of those things just won't. Tell me you are checking in on Amazon...

Julianne: I'm always scared to look! (laughing)

Sydney: You've got to get over that, girl! There are great reviews going up. I was so happy to see that Amazon had it categorized under "Self-esteem and self-worth."

Julianne: Oh, you're kidding! (excitedly)

Sydney: My daughter – who naturally I believe is empirically beautiful – has just gotten a little smattering of freckles, and throughout the book she just kept saying, "That's me! That's me!" And it's great, because while the main character has misgivings about her freckles, you gave her qualities in which she took tremendous pride.

Julianne: There are! There are all these things about her that she perceived were things that "everyone can do," like ride a bike, and she's like everybody else; but then there's a little kid in the back who says "Not me," because somebody can't ride a bike. Also when she says she's "just like everybody else," and you see a group of kids and they all look different! Some are short; some are tall. Some have dark hair; some have light hair. They have different color skin, different kinds of bodies...

Sydney: You were so spot-on because as I was reading it at a playgroup, one of the little boys said, "Oh, that's like me!" when we got to the kid who couldn't ride the bike.

Julianne: Fantastic! That's so fantastic!

Sydney: Everyone's going to identify with something. I don't want to give away the whole book, but I just LOVE how it ends. I hope folks get Freckleface Strawberry and read it themselves.

Julianne: Aww, thanks! (laughing)