I also tell the muggles…that every kid deserves to see themselves in a book. Our parents actually had to insist we turn off the lights and go to sleep because we were reading too much. We’d come out of these fugue states and write and draw and create our own language. We didn’t make it to Middle Earth, but we did get to a place where our creative minds were ignited. We turned off the lights, tried to clear our minds, and hoped to soon be walking in the Shire, talking to Elves and hobbits, and having lunch with Wizards. We truly thought we could get to Middle Earth by sheer concentration. My brother and I, also a voracious reader, took this literally. He called it a secondary world, which your mind could actually enter. When I was a kid, I read somewhere that JRR Tolkien used something he called sub-creation to create his world. But then I’d freak out because it would be delivered by an owl and I’m afraid of birds.) Maybe…just maybe, I will get an invitation to a magical school in England.

Maybe there is a secret world behind the wardrobe. I like writing for this age group because it’s the time in a young reader’s life when the world is still full of wonder and possibility. Within their pages I discovered Narnia, Middle Earth, Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, and other fantastical people and places. There, I found librarians who were always ready to recommend a new book. But the thing that always made me feel better when we got to a new school was visiting the library. Leaving behind your friends when you’re a kid can be wrenching. I had to go to a different school in a new state every two years or so. When I was a kid growing up in an Air Force family, we moved around a lot. After I stare at them for an uncomfortably long moment, I begin to explain. One of the questions I often receive from muggles adults, is Why do I write for young readers.

Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut