I hate to witness animals in captivity - or see circus elephants paraded down the streets. When animals are caged, it's a loss of what they are.
I think younger readers connect so readily to animal characters because they share a certain vulnerability, particularly when it comes to adult humans, who can be a rather unpredictable lot.
We know about the socially complex lives of elephants: how they communicate, how they bond, how they even seem to grieve. We have ethologists in the field and activists on the ground to thank for that knowledge.
I really love writing, but I am very easily distracted: my two cats fighting, a rainbow, a TV show... I have to use every trick to keep myself at the computer.
I was sure I wanted to grow up to be either a veterinarian or a writer. In fact, I worked for a vet during high school, doing everything from cleaning cages to assisting in surgery.
At the end of the day, I'd love to see children stop begging their parents to go to the circus. That's what would make me most happy.
I think all writers write from the time they're really young, and you just start asking the question, 'What if?'
I think I was 9, and my mom ordered them for me from a catalogue. They bred like crazy, and I was selling gerbils all around Michigan. They wrote a story about me in the local newspaper.
As a species, we can at times be dimwitted and cruel. But we're also capable of learning.
I live in a high-rise apartment building, so I just have two cats. They're both pound kitties. One of them, Dick, is an evil, foot-biting cat. When I write a tiger morph, I'm always imagining Dick.
I think we have a real obligation when we do have animals in captivity to understand their needs and to care for them as well as we can.
I hope kids feel gratitude for what they do have.
I grew up with a menagerie of dogs, cats, gerbils - not to mention three younger siblings.
I've got to believe I'm the first person to win the Newbery who has written a Harlequin romance!
Gorillas may seem terrifying because of their bodies, but they are really magnificent and very gentle.
I tend to write short, brief snippets - I lean toward the chamber music end as opposed to the symphony end of things.
That penetrating gaze, that intelligence; it's hard not to be anthropomorphic when you're looking at a great ape - at any primate - but especially with gorillas. They're just so magnificent.
I was writing at a really young age, but it took me a long time to be brave enough to become a published writer, or to try to become a published writer. It's a very public way to fail. And I was kind of scared, so I started out as a ghost writer, and I wrote for other series, like Disney 'Aladdin' and 'Sweet Valley' and books like that.
One of my first paid gigs was writing psychology quizzes for 'YM,' a monthly teen magazine like 'Seventeen.'
One of the reasons I love writing for middle graders, besides their voracious appetite for books, is their deep concern for fairness and morality.
