He now lives in New York City. In addition to writing, he spends a great deal of time traveling around the country attending speaking engagements at conferences, schools and libraries. Virtually every publication and association in the field of children's literature has recommended his books, including Mystery Writers of America, which twice gave him their Edgar Allan Poe Award. In 1998 his A Long Way from Chicago was a National Book Award finalist. It was a Newbery Honor book in 1999.
Every story is history the moment the ink is dry.
The old twentieth century is receding behind us, and that suits me well enough, because I was born nostalgic. Joey and Mary Alice in A Long Way from Chicago visit the country town where my own real-life grandma once lived. It's her house too, with the privy standing proudly behind. I can just barely recall that that house was lit by coal-oil lamps. I write of it now in the twenty-first century in a world lit by lightning.