Goodreads asked Kelly Carey:

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Kelly Carey The best thing about being a writer is creating a book. There is something wonderfully permanent about a book.

I love that my words will always be safely tucked inside a sturdy cover and embellished with beautiful illustrations. I love knowing that, at any moment, little hands could open those pages and the words I wrote can connect with the heart and soul of a reader. That’s a gift I will forever be grateful for!

I love that my audience is children. Kids offer their undiluted honest opinions with a candor and enthusiasm that is thrilling. If they love your book, they will gush and cheer. Reading my magazine fiction stories in classrooms and seeing kids smile, or hearing them laugh at funny parts, or comment seriously about how the story made them feel or think- that is gold! I have read unpublished pieces to kids and they offer up advice, or comment on why they didn’t like something in a refreshingly innocent way. When negative comments come from sparkling eyes, and squishable cheeks – it’s always welcome!

And I love the KidLit community. The booksellers who create wonderful children’s reading spaces and events for kids, the librarians who offer up books to young readers with an eagerness that feels sacred, the editors and publishing teams who pull bits of creativity together to create these wonderful finished products, and the illustrators and writers who are so willing to dive into their own imagination and pull out pieces of themselves and share them with young readers – it’s just a fabulous group to be a part of.

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