Just as Wheelie offers this jaw-breaking confection in Rebecca Stead’s Newbery winner When You Reach Me, so I’m offering a few bits too. (Mine are far less cavity-inducing though.)
“For me, as a kid, a book was a very private world,” she said. “I didn’t like talking about books with other people very much because it almost felt like I didn’t want other people to be in that world with me.”
I believe–and this is not an original idea from me–that really strong writing yields more every time you read it.
Optimism doesn’t come easily to me, but it’s a quality I strive for.
From Meet Rebecca Stead
I like the here and now. Imperfect as the world is, I do think we’re at least kind of groping in the right direction.
“Kids are not quite as independent at that age anymore,” she says. “From age nine, my friends and I were on the streets, walking home, going to each other’s houses, going to the store. I really wanted to write about that: the independence that’s a little bit scary but also a really positive thing in a lot of ways. And I’m not sure that most kids have that today.”
educating alice 