Almost every day after school, I was at the library doing homework but more precisely picking out my next book to read. It all started with the Bob Books, then came Little Bear, Henry and Mudge, Frog and Toad, No Fighting, No Biting! and many others I cannot begin to list. While I enjoyed everything I read, these are the authors that kept me reading.
5. Tedd Arnold
What drew me into Tedd Arnold’s books were his watercolor illustrations. The colors fold into a mix that makes the characters come to life. Parts and More Parts are his most memorable books, teaching readers about the body. The protagonist is a bit of a hypochondriac but he learns jumping out of your skin is not only an idiom but the most normal thing about you.
One day the word “underwear” was shared and got a huge laugh in class but not from the disapproving teacher. That same day, an undressed hero was born. Dav Pilkey shows that reading is nothing short of fun and his books are that and more. Knowing how he has struggled with dyslexia and ADHD, it is nice to know he is having fun while teaching his readers to question things through his satirical storytelling. Some of my favorites are Kat Kong, Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot, and of course Captain Underpants.
Ain’t ain’t a word! Actually, it is and so is frindle. Andrew Clements classic story about calling a pen a “frindle” instead has stuck with me ever since I started writing book reports. His stories have taught me there is a world of multiplicity out there, one where your creative side is someone’s welcome mat. His books that inspired me include Frindle, Lunch Money, where a student writes and sells his own comic books, and No Talking, where a class makes a running bet of no talking after a lecture on Mahatma Gandhi.
Thrills and treachery from a mysterious and sarcastic narrator makes for the perfect series of unfortunate events. Daniel Handler, also known as the aloof Lemony Snicket, wrote the first book series I read to completion recounting the lives of the Baudelaire children, A Series of Unfortunate Events. The dark charisma he musters in his writing reveals a world of believers in the face of deceivers. Handler returns with a new prequel series of noir called All the Wrong Questions.
The one writer that always made it on my reading list is none other than the wonderful wordsmith Roald Dahl. There is no one sweeter than this sweet tooth storyteller! From the unnerving witchcraft of The Witches and the ugly that can fester inside us from The Twits to the hidden potential of a psychokinetic sixth-grader and an orphaned boy and his giant peach, it is no wonder he has been deemed one of the world’s greatest storytellers. There is never a dull moment with Dahl!
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