That was unbelievable, you know, because the amazing thing about the Newbery is that, as far as literary awards go, it’s something that the layperson recognizes. People who aren’t in the book world know that award and pick up a book because of that award, and I, as a child, knew to look for that medal on a book — that it guaranteed me that I was going to like the book.
And so to think that that would be on something that I had written — the first thing that I’d written — there’s no describing that feeling. Hysteria.
I can’t remember where they were that year. It must’ve been on the West Coast, because the call came relatively early, and I was hysterical, and then I went off to work at the bookstore. It was a life-changing thing, and I hadn’t understood the implications of how it was going to change my life.