Essays

Why I Love Books for Children and Teens: The Whole Story
“The most important feature of fantastic stories for children, whether they take place in some quasi-medieval kingdom or a bleak dystopia or a galaxy far, far away, is the presence of hope.”

So You Want To Read Middle Grade: Why I Love MG Romance
“…what grabs readers isn’t the physical payoff but the spirit of the relationship between two characters, the sense of chemistry and potential between them. MG novels can create that sense of deferred longing and anticipation just as well as any other genre — or better.”

The Beautiful Other: or, Why I Write About Faeries
“I wasn’t interested in exploring what faeries are and have, so much as what they aren’t and haven’t.”