Pranking exposes the truth that underneath this appearance of order is joy, laughter, and disorder.

Pranking exposes the truth that underneath this appearance of order is joy, laughter, and disorder.

It's a sort of patronizing idea that literature for children has to feature role models of exemplary behavior. I think not only is that bogus, but it leads to really boring books.

Danger is the snack food of a true sleuth.

I love those adult writers with the pranking ethos, [Don] DeLillo and [Donald] Barthelme and David Foster Wallace. I don't see any reason not to bring those kinds of influences to bear on books for children.

I read The Stinky Cheese Man as an adult. I missed that book when I was a kid. I grew up mostly with books bought at yard sales, picture books from the fifties to 1975, which is really a lucky thing.

I'd much rather have a book that a few people love intensely than a book that a lot of people like okay.