And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.

But let's not speak of what might have been. Let us speak instead of what is. You are whole.

I have been loved, Edward told the stars. So? said the stars. What difference does that make when you are all alone now?

I think of Mercy Watson like a superball; there's a bouncy kind of optimism to her stories. She allows me to play, and she makes me laugh. Hopefully readers feel the same way.

Have you, in truth, ever seen something so heartbreakingly lovely? What are we to make of a world where stars shine bright in the midst of so much darkness and gloom?

Nobody ever learns anything.

Reading a story should be a fabulous, wonderful thing. The most important thing that parents can do for kids is to read with them and to let their kids see them reading books for their own pleasure.