There's no book or play or series or anything that speaks to everyone, because then it wouldn't speak to anyone.

Ideas come from everywhere - they come from what you see and hear and imagine.

When [books ban] happened, I felt completely alone and that was scary and sad.

Kids should read whatever they want to read. So I'm hoping that just like 15-year-olds read "Summer Sisters," I'm hoping that they'll read this.

"Summer Sisters" is probably my least autobiographical book. The whole idea started with rowing down the pond. And I heard an explosion. I don't like sudden loud noises. They scare me. And then all these people came running down the hill and jumped in the water in their finery and a bride and groom was with them, and that's where it all started.

I fell in love with books at the Elizabeth Public Library when I was four.

I thought ["Summer Sisters" ] would be a children's book - two girls who summer together from very different backgrounds. And then when it just kept going and going and going. They kept getting older.