Taught by His Students As a high school English teacher, Richard Peck became familiar with the reading habits of his teenage students "It was my students who taught me to be a writer, though i had been hired to teach them.They taught me that a novel must entertain first before it can be anything else. Although Peck liked his students and found their lives fascinating, he eventually decided the classroom wasn't the best place for him. He wanted to write young adult fiction novels for readers around his students' ages. He has written more than thirty-two books to date, all of them on a typewriter. Before he left teaching, however, he learned about far more than his audience's taste in stories; he also learned about the problems that young people face both inside and outside of school. His books have been praised for dealing with such problems bravely and realistically Asking Honest Questions Peck writes about tough topics, such as peer pressure, censorship, and death. He says that a goal of his writing is to "ask honest questions about serious issues" Although the answers to such questions aren't always pleasant, dealing with serious issues is a part of growing up. Peck hopes that his books help young people do just that. In his young adult novels he hopes that "the reader meets a worthy young character who takes one step nearer maturity, and he or she takes that step independently