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

Otis was inspired by a boy who sat across the aisle from me in sixth grade. He was a lively person. My best friend appears in assorted books in various disguises.

He was dressed as if everything he wore had come from different stores or from a rummage sale, except that the crease in his trousers was sharp and his shoes were shined.

One rainy Sunday when I was in the third grade, I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered that even though I did not want to, I was reading. I have been a reader ever since.

Problem solving, and I don't mean algebra, seems to be my life's work. Maybe it's everyone's life's work.

I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.

I write in longhand on yellow legal pads.