Tag: magic

  • August 8, 2023

    August 8, 2023

    I was digging through old photos the other day and came across this one of me at Disney World in the seventies. The first thought that popped into my head when I saw the photo was: this is why I write books for kids. Because of this kid, the kid I was. The kid who…

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  • February 9, 2023

    February 9, 2023

    “Magic is always impossible,” said the magician. “It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic.” Those words are from The Magician’s Elephant. When I typed them out, I was struck by the notion that you could substitute the word “writing” for magic…

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  • November 8, 2022

    November 8, 2022

    When I was a kid, my mother took my brother and me to the Nutcracker ballet every year; and every year—even though I knew the story and how it would unfold—I was utterly transported. I left the theater feeling as if I had just dreamed the most fantastic dream. The Nutcracker made me believe in…

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  • November 3, 2020

    November 3, 2020

    Last week, I received letters from several different teachers about reading aloud to their students during these times—reading aloud with a mask on, reading aloud over the computer, reading aloud at a social distance. As one teacher said, “You think, each time, that the magic won’t work, can’t work, and then it works. We come…

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  • December 10, 2019

    December 10, 2019

    Yesterday, I was in the woods behind the Kentucky Star Motel and I came upon Christian Convery, the actor who is playing Rob Horton in the movie of The Tiger Rising. It’s an amazing thing—to tell a story that becomes a book. It’s astonishing, too, when people read the book and tell you that it…

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  • December 7, 2017

    December 7, 2017

    I’ve got a small hole in the floorboard of my kitchen. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve caught sight of it and felt my heart lift. Why? Because I think—just for a second—what if there are Borrowers living there? This is what I love about books for children. They gave me (and still…

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