Describe your new book.
Dexter the Tough is about a boy who's just arrived at a new school and hates it instantly. Assigned to write something that will help his teacher get to know him better, he whips out, "I'm the new kid. I am tuf. This morning I beat up a kid." The horrified teacher asks if his story is true and he denies it. But it is — or at least he thinks it is, until he begins revising, and discovers all sorts of secrets hidden in his own tale.

Some of the reviews have said the book is about bullying, and I was baffled the first time I heard that. I thought, "No — Dexter isn't a bully! He's just a kid with a lot of problems that other people don’t understand!" Then I had my "duh" moment: "Oh. Right. I guess a lot of bullies could be described that way." I identified with Dexter so completely when I was writing the book that I had trouble seeing him as just an abstract label.

How did the last good book you read end up in your hands?
I was facing a six-hour (round-trip) drive to Pittsburgh for an author visit, so I wanted a book on CD to keep me entertained and awake. On the recommendation of my 14-year-old daughter, I picked up Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. The drive turned out to be very rainy and dreary, but that actually pleased me because it fit so well with the setting of the book. I got so engrossed in Twilight that when I got home, I actually found myself wishing that the drive had been longer. Rather than sit in my car for eight more hours, listening, I got a copy of the printed book, and devoured the rest of it in a couple hours (I guess I read faster than I listen). Then I went back and re-read the parts that I'd only heard. I was completely obsessive and addicted — which also fit well with the book.

Do you read the Sunday funnies, and which are your favorites?
Always! Mostly they're the ones centered on kids and families: Zits, Baby Blues, For Better or For Worse, Foxtrot, Sally Forth. I also always read Dilbert (to remind me that I'm glad I don't have an office job) and Doonesbury (to disturb me, which isn't a bad thing, either).

What was your favorite story as a child?
It varied over the years (and probably day to day, depending on my mood) but one of my favorites was always A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I must have read that book at least a dozen times, and cried every single time.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't really think it was possible. I viewed books as so incredible that I was certain that only glamorous, exotic people would be allowed to become writers — not ordinary people like me. I remember this viewpoint often when I am sitting around in my glamorous sweats, exotically debating with myself: "Should I use the word, 'a' or 'the' here? 'A' or 'the'?"

Why do you write books for kids?
I think kids are interesting — a lot of times, more interesting than adults. Kids are always growing and changing, and it's a fascinating process to watch and write about. I suppose I could write about kids for an adult audience, but kids as readers are fascinating, too.

Share an interesting experience you've had with one of your readers.
I was at my local library with my own kids. It was the first week of the summer reading program, when everyone swarms the place, so the shelves were a bit barer than usual. I heard two boys start fighting over a book: "I saw it first!" "Well, I picked it up first, so it's mine!" "Hey, give that back!" I couldn't resist sneaking a peek to see which book they both wanted so badly — and it was one of mine, Among the Hidden. It's not that I want to encourage kids fighting (see, for example, Dexter the Tough), but I think that's one of the best compliments that any of my books have ever received, that neither boy was willing to let go of the library's last copy of Among the Hidden.

Tell us about your pets.
I grew up on a farm, so when I was a kid my brothers and sister and I had a lot of pets: dozens of cats, a dog, a turtle, a gerbil, a pony — and hogs, cattle, and chickens, if you want to count them as well. I was convinced that when I grew up I'd get a monkey, too, but somehow that never happened. Now my husband and kids and I have one cat, and my daughter has one fish, and that seems like plenty.