My writer pal, Sarah Miller and I were chit-chatting the other day about some of our favorite books...
...and some of our favorite authors...
...and what makes them favorites....
....which made us curious to hear from other book folks.
Who do you consider to be some of the most skilled writers for young people?
By "skilled", I mean, writers you think are particularly good at one - or all - of the elements of the writing process, such as dialogue, setting, character development, plotting, etc.
Any particular books that stand out with regard to one or more elements?
5 comments:
I love Karen Cushman's rich language; Susan Patron's heart-stopping honesty (esp. in Lucky Breaks); the voice in Rodman Philbrick's The Almost True Adventures of Homer P. Figg; the play and adventure in the Mysterious Benedict Society Books; the unique and fresh story premises in Joni Sensel's novels; the compelling stories and characters in Barbara O'Connors' books; the sophistication of Susan Fletcher's books; the space for the reader to participate in Linda Urban's A Crooked Kind of Perfect; the plot twists in Neal Schusterman's Unwind and the perfect first line of Kate Di Camillo's Because of Winn-Dixie.
And that's just the beginning! There are so many skilled writers -- I read in awe every single day.
I'm going to say Karen Hesse and Lois Lowry. In Hesse's book, "Letters from Rifka," I believe the character development is superb. I feel Rifka's pains and joys.
Then there is Lowry's "Number the Stars," what a book! I am fasinated from page one. The way she developes the setting, I can picture in my mind all the places.
However, I'm a new big fan of your books. My kids love them and that makes me extremely happy. In Fame and Glory, my students really understood how the characters felt.
Some of my favorite authors are Lois Lowry, Madeline L'engle, Richard Peck, E.L. Konigsburg, and of course, you.
:-)
So in honor of Children's Book Week (ahem, librarians never forget these things), I linked to this post about my favorite kids' books, from my blog http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/.
Here's a sentence or two:
I love the way Kate DiCamillo tells a story. More recently, I've appreciated the historical fiction of Laurie Halse Anderson, the close research required to write so truthfully of a time period. And until I discovered and dissected the Southern-themed books by Deborah Wiles, Kerry Madden, Barbara O'Connor, and Cynthia Rylant, I didn't understand "voice" in books written for kids.
Hi Barb! I love YOU, of course. ;-D
Do you know Augusta Scattergood? She talked about you on her blog . . . http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/
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