I first became familiary with Gail Giles when she came to Denver in 2008 to speak at the Colorado Teen Literature Conference, shortly after the publication of her novel Right Behind You (Little,Brown, 2007) which follows a mentally ill teenager who commits a heinous crime. I was completely enthralled with her honesty, droll demeanor, and instant connection with the attending teens. When the Girls Like Us (Candlewick, 2014) galley arrived, I tore into it and knew that once again, Giles had knocked it out of the park. This story features complicated characters and situations, much of it based on Giles own experiences working with special education students. I knew that my colleague at Douglas County Libraries, Laura Olson, would be a great match to interview Giles—she and her colleague Laura Baldasarri-Hackstaff pioneered a sensory-enhanced storytime at the James H. LaRue branch which welcomes the most challenged young patrons to take part in library programming. Olson also serves as co-coordinator for the branch’s Teen Library Council. Let’s hear from Olson and Giles now.­—DO Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions and, of course, thank you for writing Girls Like Us. I’m such a sucker for well-written, heart-tugging realistic YA fiction. This is your eighth novel. Does the writing process get easier?   Indeed, this is my eighth novel and it took me 10 years to write it. I wrote it in and out of the other novels. And no, it never gets easier! You wrote this book, in part, to give voice to your former special education students.  How did you develop the characters of Biddy and Quincy? Bits and pieces of my former students are combined in Biddy and Quincy and then stirred with my own creative spoon. One of my students wore a coat with snacks pinned inside. Another had her baby taken away illegally, another was raised by a grandmother that was too tired, too poor, and had negligible parenting skills, and there was one student,not classified as special ed but with low reading skills, who faced every day with her fists up. I was able to mix and combine and add traits that I needed to create Biddy and Quincy. Why did you choose to share both Biddy and Quincy’s perspectives in the story?   I wanted to show two different sides of special education and show that the differences between the differently abled and any other group of people are about the same. Do you identify more with Biddy or Quincy? Why? Quincy. I’m a fighter. I love that you wrote Miss Lizzy as a good person who makes mistakes. Why was this important to you and the story?   People who don’t make mistakes are boring. And I’m not sure they exist. Much of the dialog is grammatically incorrect. How difficult was that to write?   Very. My editor and I had to make lists and charts to make the grammar mistakes pertinent and singular to Biddy and Quincy separately. In YA fiction we don’t see many protagonists with cognitive impairment. Why do you think that is?   I’m not sure. I was told by a publisher that I would be “flayed” if I attempted this. I think trying to get into a mental impairment that you do not have is tricky. What authors do you admire? What’s on your nightstand?   Well, like the rest of the world, I love John Green; on my nightstand right now is Laurie Halse Anderson’s new one, The Impossible Knife of Memory (Viking, 2014). I love her work as well. Jordan Sonnenblick is a fave and E. Lockhart is a standout. What can we expect from you next? I am in a fallow period right now. Don’t expect anything soon.