The best thing that I always say to kids is “If you want to be a writer you have to be a reader.” And that’s very, very important. The thing that always kind of drives me crazy is when an adult comes to me and says “Oh I want to write a children’s book.” And I’ll be like “Oh what are your favorite children’s books?” And they’ll be like “Oh I don’t read them.” Well how can you write a children’s book without reading them? And I think that’s very, very important. I think you need to read books and you need to love books.
I think, to me, I feel like if the author doesn’t love what they wrote, if the author doesn’t love their own book, then the reader is never going to either. So I think the best advice other than to read a lot is to love what you’re writing. Of course you’re going to have, there’s love hate when you write it. But to, but in the end, to love what you’re writing because you have to love it before anyone else does.
