Summary
Just as authors create books, books create authors -- and these essays by thirty-one writers for young people offer a fascinating glimpse at the books that inspired them the most.
What if you could look inside your favorite authors' heads and see the book that led them to become who they are today? What was the book that made them fall in love, or made them understand something for the first time? What was the book that made them feel challenged in ways they never knew they could be, emotionally, intellectually, or politically? What book made them readers, or made them writers, or made them laugh, think, or cry? Join thirty-one top children's and young adult authors as they explore the books, stories, and experiences that changed them as readers -- for good.
Some of the contributors include:
Ambelin Kwaymullina
Mal Peet
Shaun Tan
Markus Zusak
Randa Abdel-Fattah
Alison Croggon
Ursula Dubosarsky
Simon French
Jaclyn Moriarty
What if you could look inside your favorite authors' heads and see the book that led them to become who they are today? What was the book that made them fall in love, or made them understand something for the first time? What was the book that made them feel challenged in ways they never knew they could be, emotionally, intellectually, or politically? What book made them readers, or made them writers, or made them laugh, think, or cry? Join thirty-one top children's and young adult authors as they explore the books, stories, and experiences that changed them as readers -- for good.
Some of the contributors include:
Ambelin Kwaymullina
Mal Peet
Shaun Tan
Markus Zusak
Randa Abdel-Fattah
Alison Croggon
Ursula Dubosarsky
Simon French
Jaclyn Moriarty
Contents
Shaun Tan asks, why do you read? / Shaun TanA feverish desire to possess / Randa Abdel-Fattah
Twelve reasons / Markus Zusak
A short leap / Cathy Cassidy
"What happens next?" / Will Kostakis
The great sense of unease / Mandy Hager
Hooked (and a bit unsettled) / Shaun Tan
Thwack! / Fiona Wood
Becoming human / Bernard Beckett
Looking where I'm standing / Felicity Castagna
This world is more than what can be seen / Ambelin Kwaymullina
What the doctor recommended / Queenie Chan
Of magic and memory / Kate Constable
The big Scooby-Doo reveal / Rachael Craw
Sweet dreams and social fails / Simmone Howell
Every disgusting detail / Benjamin Law
Challenging the machinations of racism / Jared Thomas
Invested with enchantment / Alison Croggon
It looks like a comic / Mal Peet
My first reader / Ursula Dubosarsky
In folded arms / Cath Crowley
What would Edith do? / Emily Maguire
Putting the world to rights / Catherine Mayo
Beyond the influence / Ted Dawe
A sense of resolution / Simon French
Only white people lived in books / Catherine Johnson
Set my senses alight / Sue Lawson
Happy endings / Brigid Lowry
You'll go blind: a cautionary tale about the power of reading / Julia Lawrinson
Ingenious decisions / Sue McPherson
James remembering / James Roy
Seeing red / Jaclyn Moriarty.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Publisher's Weekly Review: "