Young adult novels don't shy away from the discussion of weight issues, and 'Blubber,' the tale of an overweight, not-so-sympathetic fifth-grader bullied by her peers, is a refreshing take.
I'm a severe graphic novels junkie. People ask me about it, and I say I like the graphic novels. Comic books are for kids, and graphic novels are for adults. But you can't really separate the two.
Even with the Boy Scouts admitting openly gay youths, its exclusion of LGBT adults teaches our children by example what the organization really thinks about them — and what they should think about themselves.
Children's books are often seen as the poor relation of literature. But children are just as demanding as adult readers, if not more so. I should know. I'm a children's writer myself.
I never, even for a moment, doubted what they’d told me. This is why it is that adults and even parents can, unwittingly, be cruel: they cannot imagine doubt’s complete absence. They have forgotten.
I think there was an absolute, deep gap between consensual relations between adults, which people may like or dislike, and people who physically impose themselves on children or misuse their authority to impose on children.
I wanted to do pretty much a purely boy story, yes. The girls are kind of the bad guys in 'Marble Season', although that wasn't my intention. It's also a world without adults.
There wasn't much as a kid that inspired me in what I did as an adult, but I was always very interested in what motivates people, and in telling stories and building things.
I am actually a bit chubby, and I eat everything. I eat in a way - if my parents fed me the way I choose to eat as an adult, they would've lost custody.
I never really had that father figure to look up to. I think that's the reason I'm so ambitious. I felt like I wasn't appreciated as a child so I wanted to prove my worth as an adult, as an actor.
I learned that adults were not soaring gods, but rather back-yard birds with broken wingtips. When you are thirteen, about to free-fall into the real world, discovering the broken wingtips is terrifying.
I need to find a church on Sunday. I need to say 'please' and 'thank you,' 'yes sir' and 'no ma'am.' Do the little things because that's part of being an adult.
Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don't believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it.
I'm thought of as a celebrity. Everything I've ever done... has been for children. As long as I was working constantly, that was fine, because, although I don't have any children, I do relate better to them than adults.
Down the road a bit, I would like to write a couple of stand-alone adult novels, especially in the horror genre. I've got lots of things up my sleeve.
Why pour shampoo into a rabbit's eyes to see how much shampoo you can put in an adult's eyes before they go blind? I'll put them in my hair, in my eyes before I would give them to anyone else.
If I had to make a general rule for living and working with children, it might be this: be wary of saying or doing anything to a child that you would not do to another adult, whose good opinion and affection you valued.
What men don't want, in fact what anyone who's any sort of thrill-seeking, intelligent adult doesn't want, is some crushing bore describing their emotions in real time every waking hour.
John Hammond: ...And there's no doubt; our attractions will drive kids our of their minds! Dr. Alan Grant: And what are those? Dr. Ellie Sattler: Small versions of adults, honey...
[last lines] Sheik's Great Grandson: So, these two men from your grandfather's stories, they really lived? Adult Walter: [wistfully] Yeah, they really lived...
I remember very vividly what it's like to be a child. The adults you liked were the ones who listened to you when you spoke and gave you time to say what you wanted to say and actually listened, and quite often reacted as a result of what you'd said.
