I enjoy writing for third and fourth graders most of all.

All her life she had wanted to squeeze the toothpaste really squeeze it,not just one little squirt. [...] The paste coiled and swirled and mounded in the washbasin. Ramona decorated the mound with toothpaste roses as if it was a toothpaste birthday cake

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

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

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

Don't stop now. Go ahead! Be readers all of your lives. And don't forget, librarians and teachers can help you find the right books to read.

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.