She wondered if all the firsts in her life would go by so quickly, and be forgotten just as quickly.

I don't really know exactly how it happened but I don't like the idea that I would ever have said I'm going to write about racism or puberty or bullying.

We must, we must, we must increase our bust.

When I started to write, it was the '70s, and throughout that decade, we didn't have any problems with book challenges or censorship.

Like my mother said, you can't go back to holding hands

I've never really thought in terms of taboos. I think that books can really help parents and kids talk together about difficult subjects. I've always felt that way.

My mother was a cracker jack typist. And she would come in and sit at my house and type the final type script before I would then send it to the publisher. And it was nice for us.