"I don't think I could have written The Orange Shoes or created the character of Adella Porter, a young artist who learns firsthand that less can be more, if I hadn't experienced our childhood Depression Club and my stubby pencils and envelope sketch book. In The Orange Shoes, Delly doesn't have shoes and must walk a mile to school in her bare feet. But Delly doesn't mind because she loves the feel of the dirt road under her feet; the sandy places and the dried mud places and the smooth places after the road scraper's gone through. Less had become more. But when Delly does get a new pair of beautiful orange shoes, and wears them to school, just to show the girls at recess, her more is quickly and cruelly reduced to less as the girls kick, scrape and scuff her new shoes until they are ruined. (This playground bullying actually happened to me!) But Delly Porter is a talented young artist, who takes her ruined shoes and turns them into much more than anyone could imagine."

Read more from this essay, written by author Trinka Hakes Noble for Powell's, about her latest book "The Orange Shoes".