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Caldecott medal acceptance.

Article Excerpt
I think that being human is probably the most difficult, incomprehensible, and sometimes seemingly impossible thing in the world. And I believe that all of us who live the lives of human beings every day, bravely, as well as we possibly can with the cards we're dealt, should hear our phones ring one morning and answer them to hear what sounds like thousands of librarians cheering for us, telling us we've won the great prize. This should happen to everyone, as it seems to have happened to me.

I say seems because even now, months later, it's still hard to believe that I'm standing here full of gratitude and a feeling that if I were to lift both feet off the ground at the same time, I would not fall.

Disbelief struck me dumb when Kathy East called me with the news. When I was finally able to speak, much to my surprise I heard myself say, "I have always loved librarians!"

And it's true. Ever since my first visit to the Wabash Avenue branch of the Los Angeles public library when I was four-and-a-half and took home my first book, And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, by a Doctor named Seuss, I have loved librarians and libraries and books. Books are still one of the greatest of all human inventions. In a book you can hold the imagination of another person in the palm of your hand and explore it at your leisure--true magic. I am very grateful to be part of this magical world of books, and, especially, of books for children.

I am often asked, "How do you write for children? How do you know what they'll like?" I'm always surprised...

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