Real life characters

When I think back to third grade in Miss Kingston’s class at Lakewood Elementary in Erie, Pennsylvania, I think about how my whole life, my destiny, was cast and I didn’t realize it, because I have gone back to third grade for so much of my story material for Arthur: the teachers that I use in my book; my principal, Mr. Haney, is Arthur’s principal; and problems that I had on the playground with bullies. I can’t tell you the real name of Binky Barnes, but he looked exactly like that in third grade.