It definitely influences the subjects that I choose to write about. You know, I lived in books. I lived in the library, and I’d read five or six books at a time and would go back and borrow five or six more. I went to bed with a flashlight so I could read after the lights went out. But with all of those books that I read, I rarely saw anyone in them who looked like me, or who had my life experience. I had a deep need to be validated — to know that I wasn’t the only one in the world having these experiences — and I didn’t find that in the literature. So I began to feel invisible.
Now, I’ve tried to create books for those children who, like me, are in dark places in their childhood through no fault of their own, and who need to have that acknowledged. That affects their reading choices as well. They’ll come to my books because they find something relevant, and that makes them want to read. I’ve always believed no matter how complex language is, if you give a child a book to which he can relate, he will do whatever he needs to be able to read that book.
