Diana Wynne Jones. I'd also add Meredith Ann Pierce, except I think she's at the upper edge of YA.
Oh yes, seconded on DWJ. Emphasis on her middle name!
Also, Jane Yolen rocks as well. I've always liked Yolen since she had a lot of depth and breadth to her works. She's got fantasy! She's got sci-fi! She's got long books! She's got short books! She's got something for everyone.
And if we're talking about writers with something for everyone, we can't forget ol' one-name himself: Praise be to Avi!
EDIT: @_@ We don't have a page on Avi? Madness! This must be rectified immediately!
edited 21st Mar '12 2:26:16 PM by FreezairForALimitedTime
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaAvi totally stood me up for a book-signing in 1998. I have never forgiven him.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder is boss, though. I reread The Changeling a few months back, and I mangled a lot of the details in my head in the twelve years since I last read it, but it is exactly as beautiful as I remembered it being.
Hail Martin Septim!Michael Ende. Michael Ende. Michael Ende.
...
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were my favorite authors as a child. I also rather liked Louis Sachar and Emily Rodda when it comes to books solely aimed towards children. Tolkien and Lewis were my things though.
Strangely I never read Lot R all the way through till high school. I had more or less eaten all of the First Age material by the time I was 13 though.
edited 21st Mar '12 4:27:07 PM by Aondeug
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan ChahMichael Ende is awesome. I tend to find his books depressing, though. (But not The Neverending Story, which is surely one of the greatest works of modern literature.)
I haven't read anything by Jane Yolen, but I want to. Her books sound interesting and well-written.
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I read Momo and the Neverending Story when I was ten or so, if I remember correctly, and The Night of Wishes shortly afterwards. And then I somehow got hold of the mirror in the mirror
, a collection of rather dark and very surreal short stories by him.
That book shattered my mind. And it put together again, and then it shattered it again and again and again. I was far too young to really understand it (to be honest, I am not entirely sure if I get it entirely now); but that book is definitely the one which had the most influence on me.
edited 22nd Mar '12 4:38:40 AM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.Astrid Lindgren. Her books are amazing. I read them over and over as a kid, and I still find them magical as an adult (also, Mio, my Mio becomes sadder and sadder). I especially love her girl characters, like Pippi and Ronja. And I also like Emil because he's hilarious.
Erich Kastner. He really understood children and respected them. I was quite surprised to find out he's not very known in the English speaking world, I always thought his books are… universal, I guess.
edited 23rd Mar '12 4:53:04 PM by TheGirlWhoLeaped
Holes is excellent, and definitely worth your time. The movie is also good, too, probably because Sachar wrote most of it himself.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaI believe she's still alive, too, despite being well into her 90's. Quite remarkable. Still, the world will be a sadder place without her in it.
Incidentally, I'm reading Armageddon Summer right now, which is by both Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville. It's a two-for-one bonus!
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaDianna Wynne Jones, Emily Rodda, and Catherine Jinks. Oh, and Isobelle Carmody.
edited 28th Mar '12 5:49:12 AM by LoniJay
Be not afraid...Pamela L. Travers, Astrid Lindgren, Johanna Spyri and Erich Kästner, for me. Their books were among my most favorite works of fiction, while I was growing up.
edited 3rd Apr '12 11:38:19 AM by whataboutme
Please don't feed the trolls!In my personal opinion, for every dollar I contribute to Ms. Rowling's coffers, she should really be forwarding at least fifty cents thereof to Roald Dahl's estate because, had it not been for Roald Dahl laying down the foundation for my literary sensibilites, I don't know if I would nearly have been as attracted to the series as I found myself in my adolescency.
"I will flip a shit if it ends up being like anything I imagined. I will become a shit-juggler-extraordinaire, so many shits will I flip"

I wasn't sure if this should go in teh "who reads children's books?" thread because this isn't just about who still reads them. It's more a topic about which authors were your favorites growing up, even if you don't read them now.
The inspiration for this topic comes from the fact I just discovered that several of my favorite books from when I was younger were written by the same authors.
To start off with, I was randomly thinking about Bingo Brown which I mainly remembered because the depiction of Bingo's plight with the girl he loved connected very much with the young me. I looked up the author and found that Betsy Byars also wrote the Herculeah Jones books which I loved.
I also discovered that Louis Sacher, the author of Holes, wrote the Sideways Stories from Wayside School series.
In addition to those to, I can't forget Bruce Coville who I mainly know from his Camp Haunted Hills and Red Albright.
Well that's me. How about you all?
edited 20th Mar '12 8:29:14 PM by Nikkolas