Cross, Gillian. [Autobiographical sketch.] In Sixth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators. Edited by Sally Holmes Holtze. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1989, pp. 66-67. Cross tells of growing up in a bookish household, her childhood efforts to create "fast fiction," and her adult grasp on elements of a story. "I realized—at last—that structure, imagery, and characterization were simply necessary tools in the struggle to tell that story properly."

——. "Twenty Things I Don't Believe About Children's Books."

School Librarian 39 (May 1991): 44-46.

Cross provides an important statement of her approach to children's fiction. Among her many points, she distinguishes between adult and children's fiction and comments on vocabulary, social effects of literature, violence, and the handling of realism. Cross indicates that the reader she keeps in mind when writ ing is "the practical, unliterary one who doesn't usually read, but...