Can you giggle while racing for your life and protecting a six-year-old? I can.

We try not to encourage demonstrations of his mastery of the gaseous arts.

You're just here for the ride. For the incredible, indescribable Maximum Ride. --Max's Voice

I won’t lie to you—it was hilarious. Yes, we were in trouble, yes, this was a disaster, and so one and so forth, but I have to say, seeing those upturned faces, the looks, was bout the best thing that happened to us since we’d come to New York.

As a maternal figure, I always try to keep the flock safe, of course. But I admit, it did my heart proud to see the instant blood-lust pop into Gazzy’s blue eyes and to see little Angel automatically tense up and get into fighting stance, ready to rip someone’s head off. They were just so — so dang adorable, sometimes.

Then I found it: the source of the blood, the place where he'd been shot. 'Total?' I said, and I got a slight whimper. 'You have a boo-boo on your tail.

I'm not a writer's writer. I'm not a craftsman. I could be, and that would be a one-book-a-year operation.