Describe your latest project.
If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period is an explosive little novel about middle school. It's about two kids from different backgrounds whose lives collide unexpectedly. My son, Ian, age 13 — who is undoubtedly my most discriminating reader — thinks this is my best novel so far.

What is your favorite family story?
When I was six, our family went to visit some friends of my parents. During dinner at the kids' table, I was faced with the challenge of holding my own in a large group of older kids, some of whom I had never met before. That night, a peculiar slap happiness hit me and I began to make up jokes and stories, which made no sense whatsoever, yet were strangely funny. Since that time, my family has referred to this kind of quirky nonsensical stories as "Gennifer Jokes." Sometimes when I'm writing, I hear that weird humor again.

What fictional character would you like to be your friend, and why?
I would like to be Hermione Granger. Hermione is simply brilliant, plus she has a great heart, she gets to be best friends with Ron and Harry, and she spends her days at Hogwarts. What could be more fun than that?

Offer a favorite sentence or passage from another writer.
"The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay and it smelled of manure. It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful smell — as though nothing bad could happen ever again in the world. It smelled of grain and of harness dressing and of axle grease and of rubber boots and of new rope. And whenever the cat was given a fish-head to eat, the barn would smell of fish. But mostly it smelled of hay, for there was always hay in the great loft up overhead. And there was always hay being pitched down to the cows and the horses and the sheep." —Charlotte's Web by E. B. White.

What is your favorite breakfast cereal?
Eating cereal for breakfast is like wearing sensible shoes: practical but no fun. My best breakfast ever is... cookies. I love thin, crispy oatmeal cookies along with a bowl of fresh blueberries dusted with powdered sugar and a steaming hot latte with shaved chocolate on the top.

What is your favorite literary first line?
One of my favorite first lines comes from a book I adored when I was a kid: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodsgon Burnett.

"When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen."

What are you working on now?
Right now I'm hard at work on what I hope will be the second book in an Alcatraz trilogy. The novel begins a few days after Al Capone Does My Shirts ends. I'm having an absolute blast with it!

Tell us about your funniest fan letter.
The best fan letter I ever received came from a boy who said: "I wanted to write a letter to Roald Dahl, but he was dead, so I had to write to you instead."

If you could pick anyone to illustrate one of your books, who would it be and why?
That's a hard question because I love the work of so many illustrators! Here are just a few of the illustrators whose work I admire: William Joyce, Maurice Sendak, Mark Teague, and Chris Van Allsburg.

I guess what I like best about these illustrators is that they don't just draw pictures, they envision a quirky and highly original new world for each book they create.

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Gennifer Choldenko is the author of Al Capone Does My Shirts and Notes from a Liar and Her Dog, as well as several picture books. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.