She and her publisher created a book that was like nothing we have ever seen. It's beautiful.

In 38 brief chapters, this poetic, postmodern novel experiments with a variety of styles: haiku, song lyrics, question-and-answer dialogue and split-screen scenarios. With seeming yet deliberate randomness, Perkins writes an orderly, innovative and risk-taking book in which nothing happens and everything happens.

When a book is named a Newbery winner, it means that probably every public library in the nation, and most schools in the nation, will have a copy of this book. Plus, it will be one that will be gifted to children everywhere. It will be discussed, and it will probably never go out of print, so this will change her life significantly.

Writing in a wry, omniscient third-person narrative voice, Perkins deftly captures the tentativeness and incompleteness of adolescence.

The world may be full of fourth-rate writers but it's also full of fourth-rate readers.

I have always found women difficult. I don't really understand them. To begin with, few women tell the truth.