Philippa Pearce quotes:

a good deal of childhood is strong stuff for adults and totally unsuitable for children.

Nothing stands still, except in our memory.

The children's writer not only makes a satisfactory connection between [the writer's] present maturity and his past childhood, he also does the same for his child-characters in reverse - makes the connection between their present childhood and their future maturity. That their maturity is never visibly achieved makes no difference; the promise of it is there.