Christophe Niemann's illustration of Terry Gross talking with Maurice Sendack

As one of the luckiest girls in the world, my first job out of college was at Random House Children's Books. I can't even begin to describe the wonderful people I met there--or the kinship I felt with our team as we battled for budget for books and manuscripts we wanted to promote. There were three seasons of releases, and I looked forward to those meetings where the editors presented the manuscripts more than anything. And then, I'd read as much as humanly possible before we all got together and brainstormed how to sell and how to market these profoundly awesome books. Is there anything better than bringing children's books to the world? I doubt it.

I got to work with amazing, literally amazing, people like Chip Gibson and Daisy Kline and Judith Haut and Wendy Lamb and Adrienne Weintraub and Erin Clarke, and the duo Schwartz and Wade. I doubt many of them remember me (except for the ones I still count as some of my best friends, of course)--I was a digital marketing assistant for three years. But, they all had a profound impact on me. And luckily... it means I'm friends with them on Facebook so I often get to see their awesome posts and steal them as my own. Lee Wade posted this tonight and wow. It's so special I can't not share it.

Enjoy.