Today I received a lovely blog post and review from Uma Krishnaswami (a writer whom I much admire and who has done so much to expanding our notions of children’s/ya) about Tell Us We’re Home. What moved me about her post is that she articulated something that I have long felt: after I wrote and published The Professor of Light, I had a sense that I would venture into young adult. I would not abandon the world of adult fiction or nonfiction, but I knew there were many coming of age stories I wanted to tell. For me, writing young adult has enabled me to touch a certain part of myself–a bit less guarded, not yet clapped into adult attitudes, still striving, still yearning. It’s rare to have a reader be so attuned or even cognizant of your own arc and development as a writer–a true gift.