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" I think I was 9, and my mom ordered them for me from a catalogue. They bred like crazy, and I was selling gerbils all around Michigan. They wrote a story about me in the local newspaper. "

K. A. Applegate

Mom

Crazy

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" When we have financial struggles, kids are so much more aware of things than we want them to be. "

K. A. Applegate

Struggles

Want

" What do we lose without wild animal acts at the circus? Absolutely nothing, except the opportunity to be haunted and heartbroken. "

" It occurred to me that a food drive would be a natural way to talk to kids about hunger, which so many of them simply aren't aware of. "

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Food

Hunger

" As a species, we can at times be dimwitted and cruel. But we're also capable of learning. "

" I grew up in an affluent suburban world and never worried about money until I'd grown up and found wonderfully original ways to screw up my life. "

" At the end of the day, I'd love to see children stop begging their parents to go to the circus. That's what would make me most happy. "

" I grew up with a menagerie of dogs, cats, gerbils - not to mention three younger siblings. "

K. A. Applegate

Mention

Three

" I tend to write short, brief snippets - I lean toward the chamber music end as opposed to the symphony end of things. "

" I was sure I wanted to grow up to be either a veterinarian or a writer. In fact, I worked for a vet during high school, doing everything from cleaning cages to assisting in surgery. "

" I really love writing, but I am very easily distracted: my two cats fighting, a rainbow, a TV show... I have to use every trick to keep myself at the computer. "

" One of the reasons I love writing for middle graders, besides their voracious appetite for books, is their deep concern for fairness and morality. "

" Hunger and homelessness aren't things we always want to talk about. "

" We know about the socially complex lives of elephants: how they communicate, how they bond, how they even seem to grieve. We have ethologists in the field and activists on the ground to thank for that knowledge. "

" I hate to witness animals in captivity - or see circus elephants paraded down the streets. When animals are caged, it's a loss of what they are. "

" I was writing at a really young age, but it took me a long time to be brave enough to become a published writer, or to try to become a published writer. It's a very public way to fail. And I was kind of scared, so I started out as a ghost writer, and I wrote for other series, like Disney 'Aladdin' and 'Sweet Valley' and books like that. "

" I think all writers write from the time they're really young, and you just start asking the question, 'What if?' "

" I think we have a real obligation when we do have animals in captivity to understand their needs and to care for them as well as we can. "

" I think younger readers connect so readily to animal characters because they share a certain vulnerability, particularly when it comes to adult humans, who can be a rather unpredictable lot. "

" I think having imaginary friends is an amazing coping mechanism. It's pretty wonderful, and it makes a lot of sense to me. "

" I hope kids feel gratitude for what they do have. "

" When I was a child, going to a circus with wild animal acts was a rite of passage. These days, it's an act of complicit cruelty. "

" Stan is a rescue Chihuahua mix. He was the role model for Bob, the dog in 'Ivan.' The drawings in the book look precisely like Stan. "

K. A. Applegate

Role

Dog

" I love any excuse to come to New York - when it's not February. "