Recently, Laurie asked Ard Hoyt, the illustrator of THE HAIR OF ZOE FLEEFENBACHER GOES TO SCHOOL, to comment on his experience with Zoe. He wrote:

I always knew she was special. I have a dear friend who also happens to be my 90 year old Grandmother LaPreal. She and I have kindred spirits and became close when I had the privilege of living with her and Grandpa Wayne for a time during college. She told me stories about her life with such feeling that I tell you, I felt like I lived it with her. Thanks to her I got to know my own Grandfather Ard who died before I was born. Well she is a character and has reddish hair and when I told her I wanted to dedicate a book to her sometime, she asked if I would dedicate a special story with a red headed girl to her. I waited a long time for Zoe Laurie, and when I read your text I knew that I had found just the book for my special friend.

Each book that I have worked on has appealed to me emotionally first. As I read your text again and again thinking about visually telling this story, I could feel Zoe’s eagerness to please and her hair’s unwillingness to cooperate. I could almost see that little pensive face on the cover, wondering what those locks were going to do next.

With that in mind I started sketching and fell in love with Zoe.

The rest of the images sprang to life once I knew her. There was some push back on my original Ms. Trisk who I recall being older with a beehive that was way too expected. A great catch by our editor Kevin Lewis and designer Jessica Sonkin who both told me to update and modernize her a bit. I drew feverishly trying to find her but was frustrated until the day I saw a woman in a “power suit” wearing a necktie without a collared shirt and I thought…”ooooo, hello Ms. Trisk.”

The wild hair antics were so fun to imagine. The “Big Mistake” Tyranosaur hair is probably my favorite.

Anyway I had a blast breaking the rules at school with Zoe’s Hair. The story really told itself to me visually and I was proud to bring it to view.