A lot of times it's the child that sees something and not the grownup. I love that because, when readers get older, they start looking for the most important ideas in the story. They don't look at things in the same way anymore. Children haven't really learned to do that yet. They take all their great, intellectual skills, look at the full page, and appreciate all of the different things.

The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real.

We're going to Surf City, gonna have some fun. Now, two girls for every boy.

Teachers have to respect the privacy of students' creative life, but at the same time give them a chance to express themselves.

I would like teachers to look deep because sometimes kids do have a faade that they put up because they feel vulnerable. Their creative truth may not be ready for their friends to see.

I like to pretend that each book is my first one and last one, because it takes a tremendous amount of energy to do a book.

When I was little, I loved books that gave me lots of detail so that I felt like I could be transported to this other place, or, in the case of an illustration, I felt like I could walk into the page.