Some great Childhood reads!
*L.M. Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables - loved her book. Had not read it until the made for TV movie with Megan Fellows on PBS, which we all loved. Then loved Anne "with an e" more when I discovered that it was actually a series.
*James B. Garfield - Follow My Leader - I read it in the third grade and never forgot it. Then I was delighted to discover it in the school library during my first elementary teaching job and reread it. Now I own it.
*Madeleine l'engle - A Wrinkle in Time - probably the first of its genre that I read - loved all of her books - read them aloud in the classroom.
*Robert C. O'Brien- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - loved loved loved it - so sorry that the cartoon was not as good (well, I know it was a cartoon, but still!). There was a follow up book by a different author called Racso and the Rats of NIMH (Jane Leslie Conly, the daughter of O'Brien), but it was not as good.
*Maude Hart Lovelace - one of my all-time favorite series as a child - The Betsy, Tacy and Tibb books. When they were re-issued, I bought them all.
*Trixie Belden books - another favorite childhood series I loved and still own the originals (there were different authors.
*Laura Ingalls Wilder - The Little House books.
Some of my all time favorite "classics" -
*The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart.
I love all her books, but this is the first one I ever read. I was a teenager and we were on the way to Florida with my family. I'm not a happy passenger so I like to read and take my mind off being in the car. I read the book and enjoyed it. BUT THEN I was so astonished by the ending - the way Stewart used double meanings through the entire book - that when I finished the last page (after gasping a little), I immediately turned back to Chapter one and re-read the whole book. I can't count the number of times I've read it since. It still amazes me.
*Every Jack Reacher book by Lee Child. I've read every title to date, and the author is just such a good character developer. I love the way Reacher consistently "said nothing."
*Barbara Michaels. I have loved all her books - ghost stories that are spooky and haunting, but always with great, quirky characters who will fall in love (against their will!) and win you over. My favorite, the first one I read, is House of Many Shadows (I'm ashamed to say how many times I've re-read it!) She is the only author I can think of who describes the male love interest as "ugly/" and at the same time, makes him sexy and charming! **Saddened to read of her death last year in August of 2013.
*Robert B. Parker. He died last year and I HATE it when an author's voice is silenced. I watched "Spenser" on TV in high school, not realizing that they were based on the detective character from Parker's books. They're very succintly written, not a surplus word in either dialogue or narrative, but the style sucked me in. I haven't yet read them all, but I keep trying! He also wrote the Jesse Stone series - the flawed sheriff whose profound insight keeps you coming back for more. I first found out about these books through the made-for-TV movies starring Tom Selleck (a fav of mine) as the main character. I have read all of them. Still looking for copies of his Sunny Randall series. One thing I love is that Spenser, Randall and Stone appear in some of the books, popping up in one's story as a cameo part! Love and author who thinks like that!
*Ace Atkins - I haven't read his own books, but he was chosen to continue the Robert B. Parker Spenser books and they are just as good (so far).
*Michael Brandman - same as above - haven't read his own, but he's now writing Robert B. Parker Jesse Stone books and they are good, too!
*Louis L'Amour.The first one I actually read was The Last of the Breed and it took my breath away. Had no idea I'd love stories about the settling of the west. I went on to read all of his, including the many Sackett books (again starring Tom Selleck in the TV movies).
How can you not love an author who says, "The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for.
*Craig Johnson. He is the western author of the Walt Longmire series. I became aware of him after Christmas of 2015 when we were given a Netflix subscription and I binge-watched "Longmire." Now I've read all the books and am not so patiently waiting for the next one!
*R.F. Delderfield - To Serve Them All My Days, God Is An Englishman and Theirs Was the Kingdom (so so good, historic fiction)
*David Eddings (The Belgaried/Mallorean series), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn trilogy), J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings series, The Hobbit), C.S. Lewis (The Narnia series )in the fantasy genre.
*J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter books. I was a little late to the bandwagon, but during a snowed in winter week I watched all the Harry Potter movies to date and finished watching them in the theatre as they came out. When I received the finished set for Christmas, I read them all. LOVE! I haven't become a fan of her adult books.
Adult writers that I always buy=
*Stuart Woods - I've read everything he has written. The early books were better written and more in depth, but ya gotta love Stone Barrington, such a guy.
*Jonathan Kellerman - his psychological (litterally) murder mystery thrillers staring Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis are great.
*Dick Francis - I love his books, set in the horse racing world, mostly in England. His heroes are not superheroes, but never-the-less they triumph over evil (and there's lots of evil!).
*Other great detective characters; Sharon McCone books by Marcia Muller, and I've read all the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout.
*I read Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts last week. I am a fan of most of her books; she has great plots but most of all, (IMHO) she sparkles in the dialogue department. I chuckle aloud at some of the exchanges between the two main characters. I like the trilogies, and I like the stand alones. Chasing Fire, a stand-alone, chronicles the lives of two fire-jumpers. They are the highly-trained men and women who parachute from planes into the inferno of forest fires - any time they happen - anywhere they happen - and help defeat them. It is a vivid, passionate protrayal of careers associated with the danger and the destructiveness of fire. The story is great, the dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny (and hot) as usual, but what really affected me was the timing. While I read, giant forest fires were actually raging in the west and southwest. We were saturated with reports and photos on the nightly news, newspapers and the weekly magazines. It is always horrible to think about, but this time the fires were burning in an area I knew. I spent the summer of 1969 working in and near Estes Park, CO. I can't describe the thoughts of watching fire sweep through that area, knowing that meadows where I rode horses, or streams where I picnicked, or shops where I bought souvenirs (and had my ears pierced) were burning. It made an already great read become one I won't forget.
*I also read Roberts' The Witness - another favorite, but for different reasons. ** adding Whiskey Creek, The Collector.
*Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle/Amanda Quick - They are the same author, but she uses pen names to distinguish between her different genres. I like them all - have never read a book by her that I didn't like. I just finished reading Copper Beach by JAK. There's the physic element that I like - the so-called "physical thriller" - characters are "running hot" and of course, attracted to each other. The danger is that someone else with "talent" is using his in a detrimental and/or EVIL way and the hero and heroine must risk "physical" brain damage in order to save the day. I don't think I can find words to explain how fascinating these are as well as her Arcane Society books (JC) and her period books (AQ). You get sucked into the author's world, no matter the genre, and your enjoyment with each book just builds and builds!
Other Adult reads=
*Another older author I recently discovered is Robyn Carr. I got a FreeFriday book that was one of her Virgin River series. Once I realized that there were 17 of them I downloaded a bundle of the first four. I was hooked! I have always been drawn to the idea of reoccuring characters and Carr does this brilliantly. Basically, I read all 17 of them as if they were one book, downloading the next once before I finished the one before. They tell the lives of the mountainous community of Virgin River and the colorful characters who live there. Too many to name, but each one equally good. Carr has written some stand-alones as well, and I will search them out in time.
*Nicholas Sparks - okay, I know he's prolific and women LOVE him, but after The Notebook a few years ago, I swore off. I don't need that kind of emotion when I read - especially after hearing him speak and finding that his first books were all based on his own family tragedies. Then I succumbed to Safe Haven (which I liked). Probably still won't read him though.
*Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl. Oh my. I hated this book and read every word of it. Addictive. Horrible. I need a little 'hope' at the end at least in my books. But I can see why it was a best seller and why its being made into a movie with Ben Affeck, no less.
*Matthew Quick - Silver Linings Playbook - clever. Jennifer Lawrence won an Oscar for her role in the movie - I didn't see it, but many many people recommended it to me.
I read many many YA books (not in any particular order)
*Okay, I'm gonna just say it. I love my daughter's book, FAKING NORMAL (by Courtney C. Stevens). The book birthday was February 25th, 2014, pubbed by Harper Teen. I read this book in the making, while the revisions were going on, during the whole stage of writing. It is awesome. I can not wait until we can share it with everyone! The Blue-Haired Boy is a Harper Impulse e-book, written just for e-readers and devices. It's a prequel to Faking Normal written in the pov of the male protagonist.
*Marcus Zuzak - The Book Thief and I Am The Messenger - both fascinating and brilliant.
*The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. It's a YA book and so well written. I enjoyed it a lot, but then when I got to the end of the last chapter, I felt as if I had missed something somewhere. There is an implication that 'something happened' which leads to the last chapter, and I missed the memo. I later learned that there are two sequels. MAYBE the way the book ended is supposed to whet my appetite to read the next book, but this particular 'thing' didn't have that feeling. It was something that would have occurred in the interval between the next to the last chapter and the last one; a mystery that has to do with how the book ended, rather than what happens in the sequel. It left me feeling that someone had removed that next to last chapter and I didn't get to read it. Disturbing. I still liked the book a lot! *I've read the two sequels now. I would recommend them, but not sure they make the top of my lists.
*Katie McGarry - Pushing the Limits and Bethany Griffin - Masque of the Red Death.
These two books are completely different types, but I LOVED both of them. The first is contemporary realistic teen fiction, and the second is paranormal dystopic. But there are some good reasons I've lumped them together. First, both authors are from Kentucky and they are critique partners, which I find fascinating! Two authors in the same critique, agented, published and successful! I love it. Pushing the Limits is wonderfully written from the teen male hero's POV; Noah, hot guy, is tender and introspective, a sensitive teen girl's dream. Echo is scarred and remembers nothing about the night it happened. The plot is great but the attraction between Noah and Echo is wonderful. Echo's dysfunctional family is skillfully portrayed. I love this story. I equally love Masque. The book was inspired by E.A. Poe's short story by the same name, but the story is set in some future society where a devastating plague has decimated all we know. The main character is Araby Worth, who struggles with a mad scientist father and a fearful, timid mother ... until she meets Will. And Elliot, the nephew of the ruling despot, Prospero. Fear, confusion and danger ensues. The story is super, but I love the style Griffin uses to tell it. (and it reminds me of Courtney). **I've read all of Katie's books to date-July, 2014.
*Amy Plum. Die for Me is book 1 and Until I Die is book 2. (There will be more). Katie and her sister, Georgia, move to Paris to live with their grandparents after the loss of their parents. Katie is devastated by their deaths. Until she meets Vincent. And there's something a little ... different ... about Vincent, but he is "mysterious, sexy and unnervingly handsome." Yes but ... well, read it for yourself!!! (Courtney met and became friends with Amy at Parnassus Books through another author friend.)
*A Need so Beautiful by Suzanne Young. I love the male character, Harlan, sexy, loyal and faithful under very difficult circumstances. The POV is teenager, Charlotte Cassidy, who since she was very young has had strong compulsions to help someone or do something. When the Need calls, she has to answer, but she has no idea why, or what kind of being she is. This book ends with an obvious cliffhanger pointing to book 2, A Want so Wicked. A surprising twist in this sequel - also very good!
*Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ochler. LOVE this book. Anna and Frankie are best friends and next door neighbors. Matt, Frankie's older brother, is the third member in the BFF circle. But Anna has had a crush on him forever. And since I don't want this to be a spoiler, just let me say, read the book for yourself!
*Sharon Cameron, a critique buddy of Courtney's (who read it in all is WIP stages!), wrote The Dark Unwinding, a gothic, steampunk type YA novel (and it's sequel now) - this is a similar to the type of romantic mysteries I cut my teeth on in my teens, when there was mostly no such thing as a YA genre. Shades of Victoria Holt and Phillipa Carr for teens! Sharon's latest book, Rook, a re-imagining of The Scarlet Pimpernel, is my favorite of all.
*Dana Reinhardt - the summer i learned to fly. OMG. The story of Robin Drew Solo who finds her dead father's Book of Lists when she is thirteen. It's the only way she gets to know who he was and how much he loved her; before he dies of cancer when she is a baby, he includes on a list of regrets that he'll never see Birdie (nickname from Robin) learn to fly. She is a loner, 'pleaser' type who struggles to know who she is and how to express her feelings. Until the summer she meets Emmett Crane and moves out of her comfort zone to help him. The only thing I didn't like about this book was the ending - it was what I call an 'author' ending, instead of a 'reader' ending. I wanted more closure. But the book was awesome and I recommend it!
*Stay by Deb Caletti. Another beautifully written novel for teens; the author has an amazing way of putting emotions into words. Clara Oates meets Christian and instantly falls for him. It becomes a very intense relationship, the kind she has never experienced before, and becomes scary. The way this book is told from her point of view is powerful - it goes back and forth between what is happening and how it relates to the past and the beginning of the relationship - how she looks back and sees the danger flags. And how another boy shows her the way. I think this book is important for teens to read - girls or guys. I've since read her other books and they are just as tender.
*When It Happens by Susane Colasanti - I'll read more by this author. The story of Sara and how two guys impact her life (Dave and Tobey) along with her two best friends, Maggie and Laila. It is also an example of the worse of school popularity cliques and image issues - many teens will relate at least in part to the guys and gals in this story (highschool!). Written well; I recommend it. Oh, my ... now I've read Keep Holding On. Get your tissues and your Mad out!
* The Beginning of After – (debut novel by Jennifer Castle , one of the best books I’ve read – Laurel’s mother, father and little brother Toby were killed in a car accident driven by their neighbor, Mr. Kaufman, whose wife was also killed. Now he's in a coma not expected to improve; his blood alcohol level was just under legal limits and he might have caused the accident - they'll never know. His bad-boy son, David, and Laurel are survivors only because they'd opted out of going for ice cream – they are grief -stricken and it affects them in different ways but no one else really understans; eventually they help each other. The story is beautifully written and tender and true. (HC Rosemary Brosnan)
* Sweethearts and Story of a Girl by Sarah Zarr. Words fail me - so good!
* Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher. Why have I not known about this prolific writer. This book touched my soul. I wish I knew The Tao Jones (so clever)!
*Ashfall, Ashen Winter and Sunrise ('14) by Mike Mullins. Two of THE best dystopic novels. I can't wait for the next one. The main character is ... wonderful. *I've read Sunrise now, the conclusion to this trilogy was worth the wait!
OH MY GOSH! I am SO SO far behind in updating this list. I read a lot. I love a lot of books. I get quickly behind on my favorites because they change all the time. I'll get back here ... if I can quit reading long enough ... and update this list!
2013 and 2014 Additions finally. Let me say that while I've read all these books below, they are not necessarily the best best best books I've ever read. Some of them were phenomenal best sellers and I was curious. I do try to keep up with what is trending in YA.
*Rainbow Rowell - loved Eleanor & Park, and Fangirl for YA. Haven't read her adult novels yet.
*Leila Sales - This Song Will Save Your Life
*Ally Carter - finished all The Gallagher Girl series, read the two books in her Heist series (which I liked even better ) Heist Society, Uncommon Criminals, Perfect Scoundrels. There are several series that read similar to the Gallagher girls that I also enjoy but didn't list.
*Andrew Smith - Winger OMGness - one of the BEST books ever. LOVE Ryan "I am such a loser" Dean. He's written other books that didn't appeal to me quite as much, but no doubt will others. Great writer!
*John Corey Whaley - Where Things Come Back (fascinating and so clever and good)
*Laini Taylor - trilogy - I read the first and really liked it - Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but when I read the second book, I lost interest. Still I liked it better than Rae Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns (didn't even read the second book in this series) which I got mixed up a lot with the first in trying to remember the titles!
* Lauren Oliver - The extremely popular Delirium series - Have to say that I loved her stand-a-lone Panic much more.
*Mindy McGuinnis - Not a Drop to Drink - awesome book (I wanted the mc to "find somebody" in the end - the only thing I would change about the book).
*Veronica Roth - The Divergent series (including Allegiant, which broke some of my rules, enough said to avoid spoilers!) such a huge run! I have seen the first movie and it was good.
*Robyn Schneider - The Beginning of Everything - I really enjoyed this book. Robyn was one of Courtney's Epic Reads Tour partners. (Better Than Yesterday as well).
*Meg Rosoff - How I Live Now (fascinating and wonderful story of Daisy who gets stuck in England when America goes to war).
*Myra McEntire - the whole Infinity Glass series - loved it! Love Myra.
*S.J. Kincaid - her dystopic series, one of the really good ones - Insignia, Allies, Vortex
*Julie Cross - I read her time traveler Tempest series and I have loved her contemporary novels - Letters to Nowhere (4 parts) and Third Degree ('14)
*Beck McDowell - This is Not a Drill - It's not that this book was great, but that I identified with so much of it - a deranged father comes to school and takes a primary class hostage when a teen age girl and boy are serving as aids. So much of the classroom stuff was authentic even if the story dragged a little here and there. Always a fear for teachers though and it resonated with me.
*Huntly Fitzpatrick - My Life Next Door - I loved this book. The dialogue was great, but also the relationship between the Garrets (next door) was so wonderful! This is an author I will read again.
What I Thought Was True ('14) was even better. Looking forward to her next ones.
*Kasie West - I have enjoyed her books - the series Pivot Point and Split Second, as well as The Distance Between Us and On the Fence ('14)
*Daisy Whitney - When You Were Here
*Jessi Kirby - I first read Moonglass and enjoyed it and added In Honor and Golden.
*Ashley Elston - The Rules for Disappearing - another Witness Protection based story and it was good - reminded me very much of *Nancy Werlin's The Rules of Survival, which I also loved.
*Gayle Forman - Just One Day and it's follow-up Just One Year. The first was great and ended in a huge cliffhanger, which was explained in the second book (which dragged a little). I preferred her two-book series If I Stay and Where She Went though (Mia is in a coma the whole first book and Adam prays that she lives - in the second book you find out what happens to them later because she 'stayed.' I really liked the second book better, but both are good).
*Rachel Hawkins - the School Spirits series, which I enjoyed, but loved her Rebel Belle ('14) even more.
*Tracey Bilen - What She Left Behind - get your box of tissues ready for an All the Feels read.
*Michelle Gagnon - Don't Turn Around series (Don't Look Now) - it is unusual (IMO) for YA books to be mystery/thrillers, but this series is that type and it's good.
*Shannon Messenger - Let the Sky Fall (#1) and Let the Storm Break (#2) - the whirlwind series with Vane Weston.
*Emily Murdock - If You Find Me - OMGness - one of the best told stories about a kidnapped girl living in the woods - tissues please.
*Miranda Kenneally - The first book I read was Catching Jordan, which I liked as a sports-themed YA. I have read her others since and Things I Can't Forget is my least favorite; the new one Breathe, Annie, Breathe is on my TBR list.
*David Leviathan - Every Day. The big thing for me is that I thought 'he' was a 'he' - but a female reads the audio version and that blows my mind. I like the books he has written with John Green, too.
*John Green - I have read all his books - Paper Towns is my least favorite along withLooking for Alaska , but I really liked Will Grayson, Will Grayson and The Abundance of Katherines. Can't forget The Fault in My Stars - can't wait to see that movie - it was great.
*Rachel Vail - If We Kiss and Kiss Me Again - interesting what happens when your heartthrob's mother marries your father and how you go on with that ...
*Lindsey Leavitt - Sean Griswold's Head - loved it! Sparkling!
*Victoria Schwab - Loved The Archived series (2), wishing for a third book, too! Also read her adult Vicious - clever! and well-done though it is not my genre.
*Ruta Sepetys - Between Shades of Gray (not to be confused with Fifty Shades of Gray!!!) - based on her own family's story of life in Lithuania after Stalin. It is a great classic that everyone should read (historical fiction) followed by Out of the Easy (also historical fiction and great). I can't say enough about her books and I'm looking forward to the third!
*Elizabeth Wein - Code Name Verity - okay, guys. I know it's wonderfully written and got all kinds of awards, so I read it, but it's just not the book for me.
*E. Lockhart - We Were Liars - I read it and recognize the cleverness of the writer, but it is not my favorite book (plot hole for me is why they 'did what they did' - no spoiler!)
*S.A.King - Ask the Passengers - another one of those raved about books that I thought was okay.
*Teheral Mafi - The Unravel Me series - I started out liking this first book but find it hard to maintain the followups.
*Jus Accardo - a dystopic series I enjoyed - Touch, Tremble, and Toxic
*Michael Grant - the Gone series (6 books) - these are addicting but pretty horrid things happen with these young kids who are left to survive behind a sort of Dome with no adults, and they're a little hard to read (okay, but i couldn't put them down). Think Lord of the Flies type.
*Ann Aguirre - another dystopic three -The Enclave series - that I really liked - Enclave, Outpost, Horde
*Lisa McMann - the Visions series - Crash and Bang - waiting for number three.
*Veronica Rossi- Under the Never Sky and Through the Ever Night (liked them!)
*Colleen Hoover - Hopeless and the Slammed series (lots of emo)
*C.J. Redwine - a favorite dystopic series, Defiance, Deception, and I can't wait for Deliverance when it comes out in August, '14.
*J.K. Rowling - the Harry Potter series - finally, I read all of them (I'd seen all the movies) the first week in January '14 and finished one after the other. So amazing - why did I wait so long!? Yet, I have no desire to read her later books for adults.
*Julie Murphy - Side Effects May Vary - a girl who has leukemia and a dire prognosis does mean things but then finds out she is in remission and has to rethink all her priorities. Best thing is a quote from the book to the effect that she knows how to die but doesn't know how to live.
*Leigh Bardugo - a GREAT series - Shadow and Bone, Storm and Siege, Rise and Ruin -this reads like an epic para-normal in a timeless age. Really recommend.
*Alexander Duncan - Savage - very good!
*Paula Stokes -The Art of Lainey - a contemporary I enjoyed.
*Megan Miranda - Fracture and Hysteria (both psychological reads with a little supernatural thrown in)
*M.G. Buehrien - The 57 Live of Alex Wayfare - really enjoyed this reincarnation book one of a series to come.
*Elle Cosimano - Nearly Gone - very good story; main character's name is Nearly!
*Jenny Han – To all the Boys I’ve Loved Before - I liked this one of Han's.
*Sarah Strohmeyer – Smart Girls Get What They Want - lively and cute, I liked it.
*Brandy Colbert - Pointe - this was a shocking story to me - one of psychological abuse and pedophiles, but probably very accurate.
*Christa Desir - Faultline - the author is a rape survival advocate/counselor and the book is graphic but realistic - it represents one way rape victims may react.
*Natalie D. Richards - Six Months Later - fascinating.
*Melissa Kantor - Maybe One Day - very good story of two ballet dancers after one gets cancer - sad but great reading.
*Claire Lazebnik – The Last Best Kiss - really enjoyed this book because it feels authentic - teens grow up and mature and regret that they were just a crowd follower.
*Katie Cotugno –– How to Love - Loved this contemporary - one of mistakes, lost love and newfound maturity. Beautiful writing.
*Michelle Hodkin – The Unbecoming of Mary Dyer and book two, The Evolution of Mary Dyer. Book three (The Retribution of.. I'll read as soon as it comes out) - really liked this paranormal series.
*Katja Millay- The Sea of Tranquility - I absolutely loved this contemporary story of healing after a terrible attack. FN has been compared to it.
*Kiera Cass - The Selection series - I read them all and I know they're best-selling and being made into a movie, but I thought the writing was just okay.
*Trish Doller - Where the Stars Still Shine - a teen-aged girl who has been on the run with her mother since she was four discovers that her father has been searching for her, her mother actually kidnapped her and every thing she thought she knew was a lie. Good story.
*Janet Evanovich (with Lee Goldberg)- The Heist and The Chase are the first two in a new series with Fox (a thief and O'Hare an FBI agent).
I've read several series of books by adult authors this year (2014) because they were compared to Robyn Carr's Virgin River series. Some were better than others=
*Toni Blake - all stories take place in Destiny, Ohio with intertwining characters, each a stand-a-lone story.
*Susan Mallory - I'd read some of her other stand-a-lones, this was the Blackberry Island series, same as above, one setting, many characters.
*Raeanne Thayne - Hope's Crossing series - all stories take place there with intertwining characters.
*Brenda Novak - the Whiskey Creek series
*Sherryl Woods - the Trinity Harbor trilogy
*Susan Wiggs - the Bella Vista series (The Apple Orchard, The Beekeeper's Ball ---) I have read other stand-a-lones by Wiggs that I enjoyed.
*Robyn Carr- has started a new series that takes place in Thunder Point.
Middle grade books I enjoyed =
*Kristin O'Donnell Tubb - I have enjoyed all her middle-grade books - Selling Hope is my favorite.
*Rae Ann Parker - The Devil's Backbone - this one takes place on the Natchez Trace, a great book for the classroom. Amy Ignatau's The Popularity Papers. Judy Blume (Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge) Beverly Cleary (Fifteen, the Henry and Ribsy books). The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynn Reid Banks. The Borrowers, The Secret Garden - these fascinate me and tantalize my imagination!
Picture books. After nearly thirty years in kindergarten and first grade classrooms, there are about a million picture books I could list here. I love them because of the illustrator's beauty and because of the writer's magical words: all the Eric Carle books, Jane Yolen, Jan Brett, Tomie de Paola, Ezra Jack Keats (The Snowy Day), Chris van Allsburg, David Shannon (No, David), Bill Martin Jr.(Brown Bear, Brown Bear), Jon Scieszka, Jon Klassen (This Is Not My Hat ), Bernard Waber (Lyle, Lyle), some Dr. Suess, Mo Willems (The Pigeon Needs a Bath), Lemony Snicket (The Dark), Oliver Jeffries & Drew Daywalt (The Day the Crayons Quit), Jessica Young (My Blue is Happy), and always always, The Tales of Beatrix Potter. There are bound to be so many I just didn't recall for this list. Maybe I'll add them later.
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