12 Authors and Their Favorite Children's Books
12 Authors and Their Favorite Children's Books
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Nancy Balbirer
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz & The Little Prince
Lori Goldstein
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Allison Brennan
I have so many! For me, Trixie Belden. At the age of 8, that series ignited my love of mysteries. A book I can read over and over and still love it: The Grinch that Stole Christmas. To read to my kids? It's a toss-up: Horton Hatches an Egg by Dr. Seuss, Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, and Purple Yellow Green by Robert Munsch.
Lauren Edmondson
Fancy Nancy, Eloise, And The Rabbit Listened
Cathy A. Lewis
*The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner *Mr. Poppers Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater *Aesops Fables by Aesop *Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald *1001 Arabian Nights by Geraldine McCaughrean
Maggie Giles
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Aimee Liu
It's so hard to choose, but Pippi Longstocking always comes first to mind. LONG before there were any filmed or animated versions of her stories, I was awestruck by Pippi's disheveled pluck and ingenuity. She was not beautiful or well behaved, as I always felt I had to be. She instead was independent and unafraid, a child living alone! She managed grief for her dead mother and longing for her absent father and all the chores of daily life with a delicious sense of adventure. Her practice of strapping scrub brushes to her feet and skating around the house to wash the floors was, for me, a life lesson: If I just put my mind to it, I could turn even the most tedious job into a creative experience. I probably think of Pippi several times a week, even decades after last reading these books. Other favorites include The Borrowers, Anne of Green Gables, Half Magic, Gone-Away Lake, The Secret Garden, and James and the Giant Peach, but Pippi just naturally leads the parade.
Joy Castro
‘A Little Princess,’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett. We struggled with poverty and hunger when I was a child, & Sara’s story gave me hope.
Martha Waters
I write books for adults, but I actually work as a children's librarian by day, and an older series that I still love to get into the hands of kids at my library is my all-time favorite, The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. It's a classic series from the 1960s inspired by Welsh mythology that I adored as a child, but which absolutely holds up for contemporary reading -- come for the fun fantasy adventure; stay for the jokes and the endearing side characters and the genuinely tear-jerking moments in later books.
Elisa A. Bonnin
When I was younger, I loved Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series. I found the first book in my local bookstore and it became my introduction into the world of Tortall. I still have my books on the shelf now!
Priscilla Paton
One children’s book? There was never just one because I was omnivorous for stories. The classic Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans did fascinate me because its star was a girl like me, yet she was unlike me in living in Paris with nuns—I lived on a farm with animals. Maybe it was about her flat yellow hat. In the farmhouse where I grew up, there was an inherited My Bookhouse set from 1928. The eight volumes edited by Olive Beaupré Miller advanced from nursery rhymes and fairy tales “from many lands” to retold, and bowdlerized, epics. At the smart-aleck age of ten, I discovered the Trixie Belden mystery series with the tomboy heroine Trixie—these books no doubt influenced my own adult Twin Cities Mystery series. When my children were small, I wrote a picture book Howard and the Sitter Surprise, which was also published in French for little Madelines to read. I can say with certainty that the favorite book of my twin granddaughters who have Indian heritage is The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk by Kabir Sehgal and Surishtha Sehgal. Yes, the wheels on the tuk tuk go round and round.
JaNay Brown-Wood, PhD, Author & Educator
1. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
2. Where the Montain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
3. In a Blue Room by Jim Averbeck
4. Afiya by James Berry
5. The Hate U Give by Angie Stone
6. The Harry Potter series
