Once I'm Given An Idea For A

I've Always Loved Children's Books - It's Not That I Didn't Like Them, I Just Didn't Think I Wanted To Do That. But Then I Suddenly Realized I Did.

Ben Remembered Reading About Curators In "wonderstruck", And Thought About What Id Meant To Curate Your Own Life, As His Dad Had Done Here. What Would It Be Like To Pick And Choose The Objects And Stories That Would Go In Your Own Cabinet? How Would Ben Curate His Own Life? And Then, Thinking About His Museum Box, And His House, And His Books, And The Secret Room, He Realized He'd Already Begun Doing It. Maybe, Thought Ben, We Are All Cabinets Of Wonders.

Time Can Play All Sorts Of Tricks On You. In The Blink Of An Eye, Babies Appear In Carriages, Coffins Disappear Into The Ground, Wars Are Won And Lost, And Children Transform, Like Butterflies, Into Adults.

I Can Draw Pencil Lines To Show Something Is Moving, But If I'm Writing, I Struggle With How To Write It. The Boy Ran Down The Hallway? The Boy Ran Quickly Down The Hallway? The Boy Ran Down The Marble Hallway? I Agonize Over The Words. So My Editor Works Very Hard. I'm Lucky To Have Her.

I Guess I See A Part Of Myself In Everyone I Write About. I Tend To Write About Kids Who Are Obsessed With Something, And Even Though I Have Never Been Good With Machines The Way Hugo Is, I Did Love Miniature Things When I Was A Kid.