Just So Stories and
The Jungle Book. All of those informed in some ways, I think, who I wanted to write for and my style but the thing that marked me most is when I rediscovered all of those books reading them to my children.
C.S. Lewis used to say that “No children’s book that can’t be enjoyed by a fifty-year-old is a very good children’s book.” I now get what he meant by that. What he means is unless that book has some eternal reach and truth that can not only touch the child in their youth but touch that child when they’re older it really isn’t a great piece of literature or worth very much. So, I’ve always tried to write with an eye to the young person that’s reading today and the young at heart who might be reading it again later.