Introduction, "Introduction to William Blake's Inn" Summary

Nancy Willard starts the reader out right by explaining how her book was born. As a seven-year-old, she was being babysat during a bout of measles. Like most kids, she wasn't ready to sleep at bedtime and asked for a story.

The babysitter, Miss Pratt, like most childcare providers at nine o'clock at night, was too tired to give her much of a narrative. She and Nancy gaze at the glow-in-the-dark stars pasted on the ceiling and quoted the first verse from Blake's famous poem, "Tyger, Tyger, burning bright." Nancy wants to know more about Blake, and Miss Pratt tells her that he died over two hundred years ago.

A couple of days later, Nancy receives a copy of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Nancy thinks it has...