Interesting... I always think good childrens writers are those who can remember their own childhood very well and so don't necessarily have children of their own.
I just spent a fortune on Clarice Bean and C&L stuff for my offspring for Christmas - found a shop in a nearby village which had loads of stuff. (And have got loads of the books includung the new one for dd).
The only thing I am surprised about is that she doesn't write the actual episodes for the tv programme (I think...) - apart from the ones based on actual books of course.