Kids are super-independent. This is the time when you don't need your parents for a story anymore. You have a great degree of agency and independence.

All of the life-changing awesome words and pictures and ideas inside your library are useless without just one word outside your library: Open.

Writing for children is as easy as describing the history of the Byzantium in three words.

The common thread of the series is that these are the books that Elephant and Piggie like to read. Elephant and Piggie are retired, so this is what they do in their spare time. What will they end up wanting to read? Time will tell. We've got to let that evolution happen as the series goes on. Any return of a character would have to be organic, would have to be, for example, Laurie Keller saying, hey, I really want to do this, and me feeling that there's a story there, rather than just saying, yeah, we can get three books out of these characters.

Aggle flabble kabble . . . snurp?

I always say, 'Books beat boredom,' said Amanda wisely.

An artist is waiting for the audience to understand the work. A craftsman is working to understand the audience.