We Need Books: The Editor’s Perspective

We need books — and I want to publish books — that reflect the whole range of a child or teenager’s emotional experiences and take us through those experiences with them. So the stories come through a child’s heart and speak to a child’s heart; so they have the bravery and honesty to look at a muddle* and acknowledge its pain, and not to be moralistic or easy; and, in the end, to help us all make it through.

— Cheryl Klein, SECOND SIGHT: AN EDITOR’S TALKS ON WRITING, REVISING, AND PUBLISHING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

*A muddle is a concept Cheryl has borrowed from author E.M. Forster. “It’s the point at which your vision of yourself and your purpose in the world is clouded by other things — by other people’s opinions, by the fact that you don’t know who you are or if you have a purpose in the world. It’s an identity crisis, essentially.”