Isabel was a lonely girl. She would hide in the basement of her grandparents' home in Santiago, Chile. In that dark and musty space, she played among the aged family photos and abandoned furniture. Among the cobwebs, the young Isabel read dust-covered books, through which she discovered the silken threads of fantastical stories, threads that would one day inform the novels of a legendary writer. Isabel Allende: Recuerdos para un cuento/Isabel Allende: Memories for a Story gives readers a glimpse of Isabel Allende's childhood influences. Benatar offers a vivid picture of a unique childhood: bewitched by the seances of her grandmother, enlivened by her own adventurous spirit, and haunted by the silence that descended upon the house after the death of a loved one. With the passage of time, Isabel became the keeper of the family memories, memories that come alive in her writing. This intriguing bilingual picture book not only introduces young readers to the life of an important author of our time but also demonstrates how they, too, can use their experiences to write their own family stories. Isabel Allende is the author of Retrato en sepia (Rayo, 2001), Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses (HarperCollins, 1998), Daughter of Fortune (Harper Collins, 1999), Paula (HarperCollins, 1996), De amor y de sombra (HarperCollins, 1995), El plan infinito (Harper Collins, 1995), Cuentos de Eva Luna (HarperCollins, 1995), and The House of the Spirits (Random House, Inc., 1985).