The young adult literature is relatively new - it just kind of exploded in the 2000s. When I grew up, there weren't bookstores with sections dedicated to teen lit, nor was my generation raised reading books written specifically for us. Because of that, today we still think of books for teens as children's books and so when you write a book that includes sensitive topics, it just seems even more controversial. What's troubling to me about that is these are issues adults know that teens deal with. Not writing about them makes them something we don't, or can't talk about.

It was love because it was worth it.

Here's a tip. If you touch a girl, even as joke, and she pushes you off, leave... her... alone. Don't touch her. Anywhere! Just stop. Your touch does nothing but sicken her.

I sat. And I thought. And the more I thought, connecting the events in my life, the more my heart collapsed.

And concentrating on the spot where the two spindles should be is the closest I get to looking Hannah's eyes as she tells my story.

How can you call it love when it hurt you so badly?" "It was love because it was worth it.

If I had a chance with him, I missed it. No, I didn't miss it. I threw it away.