People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.

The humiliation that Jane had felt turned to something else--grief perhaps, or regret. Regret that she had not known how to act with a boy, regret that she had not been wiser.

People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.

Children want to do what grownups do.

She means well, but she always manages to do the wrong thing. She has a real talent for it.

I was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.

I feel sometimes that in children's books there are more and more grim problems, but I don't know that I want to burden third- and fourth-graders with them.