Everyone's a critic.

I can't help it. I find some of the reviews by the kids who are reading the Carnegie Medal shortlist hilarious.

But only when I'm feeling strong.

When I'm feeling as if my whole life is a pathetic waste of time and effort and I'll never write another word worth reading, those kids make me feel a bit like Wile E Coyote after a disastrous run-in with that beep-beeping roadrunner.

Take this, for example:

The bride’s farewell wasn’t a very good book but it wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read. That just about sums it up. I have read much better books and I think the book would have been much better if there was a better plot. I think the book would have been better if Pell had run away without her brother and found a new lover. I also think that if the names were more normal it would have been easier to understand. Finally I think that there should have been a better excuse to run away and they should have made the part where Pell runs away easier to understand. Overall I think that the bride’s farewell isn’t a very good book but I have read worse.

Was it Beaumarchais who said 'I hasten to laugh, for fear of being obliged to cry'?