is alone and has to survive on their own, undergoing suffering and loneliness, commonly the absence or loss of parents. The author Julie Schumacher said that "a sense of abandonment [...] pervades everything she [DiCamillo] has written." Other themes in DiCamillo's novels include love, salvation, emotional change, and "senseless cruelty", according to the New York Times. According to the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, DiCamillo's works often begin with young protagonists who are "puzzled, wanting, and waiting" but conclude that they must handle matters on their own. A New York Times article noted that she has written stories in many different genres. She told the National Endowment for the Arts that her books were "the same story, over and over in many ways" with the same themes repeating. DiCamillo has said that she doesn't know how to "develop a character" but she discovers them "and follow[s] their story." DiCamillo's fiction is influenced by her experiences growing up; for instance, many of her realistic fiction novels take place in north and central Florida and include dialogue common to the Southern United States. She told the Orlando Sentinel that she tries to leave room for the reader to read between the lines, saying that she has tried to emulate E. B. White: "He's using the same words we're all using. It must be that stripped-away quality, his heart is resting more on each word, and that's what I'm always trying to do." Her novels often include "distinct scenes that are lightly connected". According to DiCamillo, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane wrote itself, while many of her other works go through eight to nine drafts. She usually only writes one book at a time. However, she told The Horn Book Magazine in 2015 that she "juggled" various works, for instance writing a draft of a more serious novel and then switching to a shorter, less serious work. She has said that when writing books for children she tries to be direct and "not to condescend to them". In a 2018 article in Time, DiCamillo argued that children's books should be "a little bit sad". She told another interviewer that "the kid in me has never gone away" and when she writes for children rather than adults the main thing she changes is to be more hopeful. Many of her books have animals as the main character, something