As A Kid Books Changed How I

So Here I Am, Sending A Two-ounce Mouse Down Into A Dungeon With A Sewing Needle To Save A Human Princess, And I Don't Know How In The World He's Going To Do It. I Have No Idea. That Was The First Time It Occurred To Me That Writing The Story Was Roughly Equivalent To Despereaux's Descent Into The Dungeon. I Was Tremendously Aware Of That As I Was Writing. I Thought, "i Have To Be Brave Or Else I'm Not Going To Be Able To Tell It." But It's The Only Way That I Can Write. If I Know What's Going To Happen, I'm Not Interested In Telling The Story.

I Think Tony Fucile, Who Did The Illustrations [for Bink & Gollie], Is An Absolute Genius. I've Never Met Him.

Everything I Write Comes From My Childhood In One Way Or Another. I Am Forever Drawing On The Sense Of Mystery And Wonder And Possibility That Pervaded That Time Of My Life.

Love Is In All Of The Books, And That's The Connective Tissue Between Them. There's A Lot Of Hope In Me; I Can Feel It. These Stories Are Balls Of Light For Me.

I Was Born In Philadelphia And Currently Live In Minneapolis. I Write For Both Children And Adults.