"He never used one word when five would do," she says.
Both parents encouraged their three daughters to be readers, and every Friday their father would take them to the library to borrow "stacks of books".
Kate's mother ran a homebased music school and Kate, who played the cello and piano, taught beginners' piano.
"Our house was full of music. It was a hugely formative part of my life, which probably explains why I'm obsessed with the music of sentences. I've had to learn how to plot books but I've always understood the rhythm and cadence of language."
Kate and co-editor Susan Paris have just produced the second Annual but there may be a break until the third of what has proved to be a winning formula - commissioned stories and artworks for ages eight to 13.
"We've both been doing two full time jobs each for almost three years and I haven't done any of my own writing for more than a year. Having said that, I do feel it's important sometimes not to write but just to think."
The author of The 10 PM Question, which has been published around the world, says the Annual was conceived to counterbalance a publishing trend that has ignored readers in the eight to 13 age group in favour of young adult fiction, particularly fantasy, and "sophisticated picture books".
"The post-war years were an incredible golden age for middle reader fiction. There was a classic published almost every week. I'd like today's children to have the same opportunities I had in reading at that age."
