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

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.

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.

Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.

Quite often somebody will say, What year do your books take place? and the only answer I can give is, In childhood.

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

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