As a writer, you should care about reluctant readers. You want these kids to feel like books are amazing and cool and that they're an escape.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The early readers are in-between books for the kids who aren't ready for novels yet but are done with my picture books. It's really rewarding to think that they can grow up reading my books at all the different levels.
I write books that seem more suitable for children, and that's OK with me. They are a better audience and tougher critics. Kids tell you what they think, not what they think they should think.
I think that writers of literary fiction would do well to read more books for children.
I think children love reading, and they will make time for it if we put the right books into their hands. And I hope I get the chance to keep being one of the people that writes them.
You don't need to have kids to write a good book for kids. I don't want my kids to see themselves in my books. Their lives should be their lives.
Young readers have to be entertained. No child reads fiction because they think it's going to make them a better person.
I never thought I was writing for kids at all. It really shocked and unsettled me to hear kids were buying the books. If I'd known I was writing for kids, I might actually have spelt things out a bit more, and that would probably have killed the appeal.
Children's books are often seen as the poor relation of literature. But children are just as demanding as adult readers, if not more so. I should know. I'm a children's writer myself.
I'm just trying to get kids motivated to be readers by connecting them with a book they like.
Children will not pretend to be enjoying books, and they will not read books because they have been told that these books are good. They are looking for delight.