Just Because A Man Glances Up At

I Started Reading Dickens When I Was About 12, And I Particularly Liked All Of The Orphan Books. I Always Liked Books About Young People Who Are Left On Their Own With The World, And The Four Children's Books I've Written Feature That Very Thing: Children That Are Abandoned By Their Families Or Running Away From Their Families Or Ignored By Their Families And Having To Grow Up Quicker Than They Should, Like David Copperfield - Having To Be The Hero Of Their Own Story.

I Like Reading Books About Kids Where There Weren't Really Many Adults, Where They Didn't Need An Adult To Come And Solve The Problems For Them. They Could Use Their Own Ingenuity, Use Their Own Talents To Solve Whatever The Issue Was. And I Like That Still. I Think That Children Want To Read About Heroic Children. They Don't Want To Read About Children That Have To Be Saved All The Time.

War Today Is Such A More Visible Thing. We See It On Television, On Cnn. In 1914, War Was A Concept. There Was A Naivety And Stupidity That War Would Be A Great Lark. It's Not That Different From Gone With The Wind, Where All The Young Men Can't Wait To Go Off To Fight And Then Two Hours Later In The Movie, We See How The Reality Of That Has Come Home To Them.

The Dot That Became A Speck That Became A Blob That Became A Figure That Became A Boy

You’re My Best Friend, Shmuel,’ He Said. ‘my Best Friend For Life.