Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.

If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.

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

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

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

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.

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