Chris
Crutcher: My favorite book as a teenager was To Kill a Mockingbird. It
was the only book I read as a teenager. It didn't necessarily influence my decision to
become a writer, but it did influence what I decided to write about. The teachers who
influenced me most were two high school teachers who used to give me five hundred word
themes to discipline me for certain kinds of behavior. They both thought I had a great
sense of humor, and there were times when I'd act out just to be assigned one. When they
laughed at my work, I was elated. I worked ten times as hard on those themes as I ever did
on a class assignment. It was about validation.
Meg Cabot: I read my copy of Jane Eyre until
it crumbled, but I was also a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan. Writing Star Wars fanfiction was my
life (only, highly aware of copyright law, I changed all the characters names, and got rid
of the droids).
Then in the 8th grade, my teacher, Dan Gotch, of the Mission School in Carmel, California,
started punishing his students for misdeeds by forcing us to write short stories. It was
one of the best academic experiences of my life. I LOVED getting punished. Mr. Gotch
showed all my punishment stories to my parents and told them he thought I had real
potential. I think that was when they --- and I --- first knew I was probably going to end
up being a writer. After that year, my mom forced me to take typing so I wouldn't have to
write all my stories longhand. I hated it, but now I can type 80 words a minute, so
thanks, Mom.
Walter Dean Myers: World's Best, edited by
Whit and Hallie Burnett, introduced me to the Nobel Prize winners. I loved the literature
I was reading and so it must have influenced me to become a writer. There was a teacher at
Stuyvesant High School who influenced me to become a writer. When she knew I was going to
drop out of school she whispered to me to continue writing. It was as if she knew
something that I needed to know. My inner turmoil was such that I don't remember her name.
What a pity.
Sarah Dessen: My mother was always giving me books
to read that were a little bit above my level, so I had to ask questions and reach a bit
in my reading. I remember loving Lois Lowry's A Summer to Die, which is such an
incredible book that I vividly remember even the smallest scenes from it, even though it's
been over fifteen years since I read it last. I loved Judy Blume, of course, and as I got
older I really grew interested in Southern women writers (being from North Carolina, it
was not hard to do.) Jill McCorkle's The Cheerleader was a book I loved when I was
in high school. As far as teachers, I had one creative writing class in high school,
taught by Rick Sonnenburg. He was the first teacher that let me write whatever I wanted,
with no guided topics or suggested themes, and it showed me what an amazing thing it is to
just let your mind go and see where it takes you. I am forever grateful for that.
Laurie Halse Anderson: I liked dark fantasy and
science fiction. They encouraged me, I suppose, in that I remember what a lifeline they
were to me then. I wish I could write fantasy, but I have never come up with a strong
enough story. My teachers didn't encourage my writing, but a couple encouraged me --- they
were kind to me, treated me like a person, instead of a body, and that made all the
difference in how I perceived my abilities.
Garth Nix: I have so many favourite books from my
teens that it's hard to pick any out. Perhaps it's easier to list authors like J. R. R.
Tolkien, Robert Heinlein, Ursula Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Frans Bengtsson, Dorothy Sayers,
Margery Allingham, Georgette Heyer, Andre Norton, John Le Carre . . . and many, many more.
