Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I'm Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving week!  If you have some time off and you aren't one of those crazy midnight shoppers, read a book over the holiday!

Top Ten Authors I'm Thankful For

1. JK Rowling.
Duh.  Series books have always been popular, but she took it to a whole new level that authors have since tried to emulate.  Midnight release parties for books?! Thank JK for that one.

2. Maurice Sendak
He gave the best interviews and never saw children as innocent people in need of protection and shielding from life. 

3, Judy Blume
If I see a group of young students crowded around a table in the library, I know they're doing one of three things: a group project, watching a video on an iPad, or hovering over a copy of Blume's Forever and reading the sex scenes.  Times have not changed.

4. Lois Lowry
I couldn't get enough of her books when I was a child, and the fact that a new addition to The Giver story just came out and the students at the library are all putting holds on it completely warms my heart.

5. Jay Asher
I just finished The Future of Us and I absolutely loved Thirteen Reasons Why, so I'm hoping for some more awesome YA books from this author in the future. 

6. Sherman Alexie
I will forever be thankful for his heartfelt response to the WSJ's huge critique of the current state of YA novels. 

7. Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak changed my life.  It still affects me emotionally when I reread it today.

8. Mo Willems
The Pigeon books have been one of my best discoveries in the world of picture books and they introduced me to the other amazing picture books he has written.

9.  Rick Riordan
I was late to the Percy Jackson party, but I love mythology and I love books that incorporate it into the plot, so yay Riordan!

10. Maureen Johnson
I've only read two of her books (The Name of the Star, Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes) which I enjoyed, but her Twitter feed is hilarious and spastic and I love it.

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