We all learn here by the honorable path of horrible mistakes.

It wasn't so much that he minded telling Leslie that he was afraid to go; it was that he minded being afraid. It was as though he had been made with a great piece missing - one of May Belle's puzzles with this huge gap where somebody's eye should have been. Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts.

We book people are always preaching about reading aloud to children, but unless you do, you can't realize how it enriches family life.

Everybody gets scared sometimes, May Belle. You don't have to be ashamed.

It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading.

It's like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.

It's such a thrill when an adult comes up to me and says, 'I read your book as a child and really loved it.' That's a tremendous compliment.