Any good teacher knows how important it is to connect with students and understand our culture.

Hoping to instill my love of learning in other children, I taught my first class at a local elementary school the year my first book, 'Flying Fingers,' debuted; since then, I have spoken at hundreds of schools, classrooms and conferences around the world.

Let's abolish the term 'childish' because adults normally cause the largest problems.

The unsaid message of that endless rack of juniors' pushup bras? No matter what size you are, it still isn't good enough.

The goal is not to turn kids into your kind of adult, but rather better adults than you have been.

As children, we have a tenuous idea of love; we often try to quantify it with how much we feel seen and heard.

Since the age of four, I've been exploring what I can do with the written word: everything from championing literacy and youth voice to raising awareness about world hunger.