Monthly Archives: May 2013

Recently, I got this letter from a teacher and her students:

Dear Ms. Stauffacher,

I think the book \”Nothing but Trouble\” is a great cultural book of inspiration for the young African-American girls in my second grade class. They really enjoyed the story and the pictures.

However, we have a question we are stumped on. What exactly does \”nickin sweet potatoes\” mean? We googled it, but could not find an answer. If you have time, we would love to hear about this. Is it cultural or a generational phrase?

Thanks in advance for any response.
Mrs. Gideon and her second grade girls

Here was my response:
Dear Mrs. Gideon and second grade girls:

Thank you for your interest in my book. That phrase was Althea’s own and it comes from her autobiobraphy “I Always Wanted to Be Somebody” Althea and her friends would dare one another to run by the produce stand and grab something. To nick means to steal. Here’s something else the girls might like to see. After the book was published I got this photo of Buddy Walker from his family. Best wishes! Sue

When we set off for New York to find a publisher, I had no idea what would happen. What a surprise ending it was…though I’m pretty sure we are not at the end of the Wireman story. This is how we rolled on our last two days in NYC. First we visited some students at the amazing PS 145. Even though they were some of the youngest students we worked with, they were fully ‘schooled’ about Wireman and the first to guess–without clues–what character I cast myself as in the comic.