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.
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Pages: 256
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Genres: Anthology, contemporary, non-fiction, short stories,
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Disclaimer: This book was provided to me by Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and we're in no way influenced by the publisher.
When Candlewick Press contacted me asking me if I was interested in this book I was thrilled. I had thought about a book like this in the back of my mind for many years, and I was so excited to see that someone had the same idea I did and turned it into a reality!
This book was such a fun read! You can easily fly through it in a few hours but I really recommend taking your time with this anthology. The way I suggest reading it is to read one story per day. Each story has something you can take away from it and think about later on or throughout your day. I feel like you will get so much more out of it that way.
One way I do think this book could be unenjoyable for people is that this book only contains authors from Australia and New Zealand. Most of the authors in this book are not internationally known, so the reader may not feel a connection with them or their story. I think the way to fix this is before you read each story to go to the back of the book and read the authors little biography, maybe look up their books on Goodreads as well. Who knows? You might find some new books to add to your TBR list. I would love to do the same thing here with American and Canadian authors as well.
I'm not going to have any spoilers in this review, but there are some stories that I would like to highlight as my favourite. Those are: Alison Croggon, Markus Zusak, Kate Constable, Queenie Chan, . Of course I didn't really connect with all of the stories, but they were interesting to read nonetheless.
I really loved how this book really didn't put any limits on the stories that these authors could tell. They weren't restricted to one book, they could do multiple books or a series, and there were many mediums used as well; print books, verbal stories, manga, picture books, etc.
I love books so much, that I was constantly absorbed in each story and I couldn't wait to see how reading and which book or books it was that influenced a person and how it changed them. As readers we each have our own stories and books that we connect with and remember nostalgically and this anthology is a treasure trove when it come to that. If you love reading, I recommend that you go out and read this book.
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