In addition to writing, she continues to teach writing and theater to children.

Watson reminded them that they needed to respect the neighborhood (Watson and the mentees’ home) and ask the kids what they needed, rather than just focusing on what the organizers thought needed to change. She had several wonderful mentors as a child and as a teen, but while acting as a mentor for high school students from her high school, she was angry about the way the organizers spoke about the community in the introductory mentor meeting. The novel was inspired in part by Watson’s experiences as a mentor and as a mentee. She has since written another picture book and several middle grade and young adult novels, though Piecing Me Together is her most well-known and critically-acclaimed work. Watson’s first book, a picture book to help explain hurricanes to children, was published during Watson’s final term at the New School, where she was studying creative writing and art therapy.

As a senior in high school, Watson helped teach poetry to younger students, something that she went on to do professionally for 20 years before becoming a novelist and that she has continued to do since publishing her first books. She discovered the Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes in school and fell in love with poetry and writing, a passion that her parents and teachers encouraged. Watson was born in Patterson, New Jersey-the youngest of five kids-but she grew up in Portland, Oregon after her parents’ divorce.

Piecing me together renée watson