The Animal Family

A lovely, timeless story, one of my grandmother’s favorites, then mine, now my son’s. I re-read it every few years, and think about it at least once a week.

The Chronicles of Narnia

In the great scheme of life, there are the Tolkien fanatics, and then there are the Narnia fanatics. I know my clan, and I’m darn proud of it. Although I missed that whole religious business until I was 35.

The Dark is Rising

Terrible confession: I tried to re-read these last year and had to stop because they were so scary. They're a great mix of Arthurian legend, time travel, and contemporary Britain, with kids saving the world from Evil. And they're not that scary; I'm just a wimp these days.

The Devil on the Road

University student on a motorcycle holiday ends up in medieval England in the middle of a witch hunt. The book stays with me to this day. I re-read it recently and loved it just as much - I can't believe it's out of print.

Dont Forget to Fly: A Cycle of Modern Poems

Although – or perhaps because – I’m not a huge poetry fan, this quote-unquote YA book is the best collection I’ve ever come across. The poems are short, clear and at times heartbreakingly moving. Why this book is out of print I have no idea; it should be in every school library in the country.

Dragonsong

Anne McCafferty was my all-time favorite author for many years. Now, of course, her stories sound a lot less like life on the distant planet of Pern and a lot more like life in repressive 1960s Ireland. But they're still wonderful.

It’s still in print – hurrah! Yet another fantasy epic, told from multiple points of view, of a spaceship and a second spaceship landing on a planet of stone-age humans. Which group represents Earth and Earthlings?

Fox Running

Girl Jock Book #1.

Astute readers may recognize the illustrator of Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia and dozens of other children’s books. Here he’s combined nonsense verse with some of the most charming illustrations I can imagine. This is the kind of book I snuck off to college, and read late at night when Tennyson and Kierkegaard became too overwhelming.

Girl Jock Book #2. I loved both of these, and now I’m told that they’re still the classics for girl jocks.

Nightbirds on Nantucket

Or anything else by Joan Aiken. Everything I know about eighteenth-century English history, I know from her. The series has yet another tough-as-nails girl heroine – you can’t get too many of those.

The Sword in the Stone

The first book of T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. I find the rest of the series a bit thick, but this is a marvelous introduction to English humor and social history.

Watership Down

A lapine Odyssey. For decades, I dreamt of making this into a movie with people instead of rabbits (because, let’s face it, that’s what they are). Alas, it has so far come to naught. But DANG, this is a great read.

Where's Wallace

I adored, adored, adored this book as a kid – and a teen. Our local library eventually gave me their copy when it became too tattered to reshelve. Much to my joy, the book was reprinted in 2000, and I promptly bought a dozen copies, enough for years of birthday-party gifts. It’s so much better than Where’s Waldo (though doubtless I’m prejudiced); Hillary Knight’s illustrations (he also illustrated Eloise) provide hours – weeks, years – of delight.