I think a point not yet covered would be our gratitude for what we’ve been able to experience. It’s truly astounding that we’ve had this opportunity and continue to have this opportunity because we’ve got many books left to do. It’s been — the children’s picture book industry is remarkably clean to use a term — I’d prefer another word but the people that are in it are in it because they love it.
Usually when you talk to editors you’ll find that someone with similar responsibilities across the board in publishing, an adult or some other field with the same number of people under them will earn significantly more and the people in children’s books usually take a cut in pay to be where they love and that creates an atmosphere in our field that is wonderful, the librarians the teachers. Teachers spend hundreds of dollars a year from their salaries which are, you know, not abundant to begin to buy our books.
And you go into the classroom and there are all of our books laid there. The school didn’t pay for those; the teachers did. This is the feeling or the ambience that saturates our field and we’re very, very lucky to be a part of it.