Goodreads asked Teresa R. Funke:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Teresa R. Funke All of my books are based on memories from real people that I interview. My most recent book is Wave Me Good-bye and it stems from the memories of a woman I met who grew up as the only Jewish girl in her Bronx neighborhood during World War II. It touches on the Holocaust and shows how people in America were affected by that event. It also deals with anti-Semitism and bullying, because she experienced those things as a child. But the most interesting part of the book is her relationship with an English orphan who was sent to America to escape the bombing of London. In real life, she talked to this boy through a fence only a few times, but I decide to use that memory to create a fully developed friendship between the two characters. In my children's books, about half the content is based on reality and the other half is made up. In the back of the book, I let the readers know which parts are true and which are embellished. This is fiction, after all. But everything that happens in my books is in keeping with the lives these people lived. It's my way of honoring an amazing generation who lived during one of the most exciting and moving times in our country's history.

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