I Was Dropped By My

I Don't Change The Language For Children Books. I Don't Make The Language Simpler. I Use Words That They Might Have To Look Up In The Dictionary. The Books Are Shorter, But There's Just Not That Much Difference Other Than That To Be Honest. And The Funny Thing Is, I Have Adult Writer Friends [to Whom I Would Say], "would You Think Of Writing A Children's Book?" And They Go, "no, God, I Wouldn't Know How." They're Quite Intimidated By The Concept Of It. And When I Say To Children's Books Writers, Would They Write An Adult Book, They Say No Because They Think They're Too Good For It.

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.

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 Think I'm Just Breathing, That's All. And There's A Difference Between Breathing And Being Alive.

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.