India, May 24 -- What was your way into the book?

It struck me that children's literature was a slightly neglected field. I look back and think I'd made my whole career about writing, reading and thinking about books, including interviewing authors. All of that started because it rested on my own childhood reading.

It also struck me that children's literature is seen in many ways. It's dismissed as less important than the grown-up stuff, 'simple, unsophisticated and marginally important'.

I felt strongly that the opposite was the case. These stories are foundational. Every reading career begins with children's reading. That's also because, as I argue, children's stories are closely connected to myths and folk tales, the most primal for...