I read a post this morning by my good friend and fellow writer, Joseph D’Agnese as he shared about the books of a children’s book author named Clifford B. Hicks. As Joe wrote: “He [Clifford B. Hicks] wrote a series of books about a kid named Alvin Fernald, who was sort of the MacGyver of the kid world. With a toothpick, a piece of string and leftover jelly sandwich, Alvin could build a contraption to save the world.”
It reminded me of some of the books I’d been given by my next-door-neighbor, Mrs. Crabtree, the children’s librarian in Raleigh, N. C.  The only one that I remember at the moment by name is: Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine. I read several others in the series before moving on to Edgar Rice Burrough’s John Carter of Mars series and the Tom Swift Jr. books, but for some reason this one stuck deeply in my memory. I guess the idea of having a machine that could do your homework was just to super cool to forget.
I was pleased to learn that the Danny Dunn series were written by two real authors and not a team of ghostwriters, like the Tom Swift books had been. Those two authors were Jay Williams and Raymond Abraskin.  I also learned from Wikipedia that, though Abrashkin died in 1960, he is listed as co-author of all 15 books of this series, which continued from 1956 until 1977. Now, that leaves a very warm place in my heart for Jay Williams.
I’m also clear that the positive impact these YA book series had on me is a prime reason I decided to start my own YA fantasy series with Dominion Over All — the first in the Zak Bates Eco Series.  It’s kinda cool to think that a few decades from now some entrepreneurial author might be sharing with his readers how Dominion Over All inspired him to become an avid reader and later a writer.  One can dream, right?

It’s Your Turn

What are some of the books that turned you into an avid reader and why? If you’re also a writer what books and/or authors have inspired you to write?  I’d enjoy hearing from you.