More favorite books
Fantasy& Authorship
(I LIKE making lists...)
Fantasy
With the following list, I have avoided the repetition of titles mentioned on the "Favorites from Childhood" and "Favorites Now" lists.
Skelling, by
Tuck Everlasting, by
The Owl Service, by
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, by
The Animal Family, by
The Phantom Tollbooth, by
Tom's Midnight Garden, by
The Bartimaeus Trilogy, by
Dogsbody, byAuthorship
I'm not a big fan of "how-to" books about writing. I'm skeptical about titles like Ten Easy Steps to Believable Characters; for me, there are a lot more than ten steps and none of them are easy!
However, I love 'authorship' books--not "how to do it" but "how I did it." I enjoy these books for two reasons--because they reinforce my belief that there are as many ways to write a good book as there are writers, and for the sheer pleasure of reading the thoughts of good writers on the subject dearest to them.
Susan Cooper: Dreams and Wishes
Sid Fleischman: The Abacadabra Kid
M.E. Kerr: Blood on the Forehead
E.L. Konigsburg: Talk Talk
Lois Lowry: Looking Back: A book of memories
Katherine Paterson: Gates of Excellence and The Spying Heart
Bill Peete: Bill Peete: An Autobiography
Jerry Spinelli: Knots in my Yo-yo String
Worlds of Childhood (various authors), edited by Maurice Sendak
Behind the Covers (interviews with several authors), by Jim Roginski