When I was in the first grade I was afraid of the teacher and had a miserable time in the reading circle, a difficulty that was overcome by the loving patience of my second grade teacher. Even though I could read, I refused to do so.

My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.

The key to writing successful YA is to keep the adults out of the story as much as possible.

I don't ever go on the Internet. I don't even know how it works.

If she can't spell, why is she a librarian? Librarians should know how to spell.

My favorite books are a constantly changing list, but one favorite has remained constant: the dictionary. Is the word I want to use spelled practice or practise? The dictionary knows. The dictionary also slows down my writing because it is such interesting reading that I am distracted.

I had a bad time in school in the first grade. Because I had been a rather lonely child on a farm, but I was free and wild and to be shut up in a classroom - there were 40 children on those days in the classroom, and it was quite a shock.