I don't know who the actresses all are. I've never heard of Kate but I'm sure she'll do fine.
I still have the art projects my kids made for me 20 years ago. I cherish them, crude and silly as some of them may be.
I always think first about the nature of the story. When I had the idea for 'The Namesake,' I felt that it had to be a novel - it couldn't work as a story.