I don't think children's inner feelings have changed. They still want a mother and father in the very same house; they want places to play.
People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.
Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.
I was an only child; I didn't have a sister, or sisters.
My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.
He was dressed as if everything he wore had come from different stores or from a rummage sale, except that the crease in his trousers was sharp and his shoes were shined.