Writing in a Broken World ...

This has been a painful and frightening week for a lot of people. At a time like this -- when there such immediate need for change in the world -- it feels hard to justify the work of writing children's stories. What could be more frivolous? In many ways, my book Sophie Quire was about this very question. But in the time since I finished Sophie, the question has only plagued me more. What is the point of a children's story? It's a good time to remember GK Chesterton's words:

I might add something to this, which is that it's important to write children's stories so that the next generation can know a monster when they see it.