Story behind the story - by Alex Dorros

I came up with the idea for Número Uno in sixth grade when the class was asked to write fables. I thought that these two characters, one with outstanding intelligence and one with exceptional brawn, would together create an entertaining story. It could also carry a valuable lesson, as fables do. The story was originally set in China, but to me it is universal. We later decided to change to a Spanish-speaking setting, which I am more familiar with.

I grew up bilingual, speaking English and Spanish and have visited many Latin American countries, including going to school there for a short while. I'm now sixteen years old and am enjoying living in Seattle. I spend much of my free time going to the nearby mountains (like Hercules and Socrates do in the book), in my case to snowboard. I also create my own stories through taking photographs, a few of which have now been published. I stay busy with lots of activities in high school.

In writing the book, the story stayed essentially as I originally had it, though we went through seemingly endless numbers of revisions and ended up changing details in the process. Writing a book with your dad is definitely not the easiest of tasks. At some points we reminded ourselves of the bickering characters in the story. Ultimately we were able to work together to create what I hope is a book you'll enjoy.