Welcome Book Blog Hoppers!

It's time for the Book Blog Hop, hosted by Crazy-for-Books!  This weekly meme encourages book bloggers to connect and share ideas.  This is the first Blog Hop with the new blog, so I am very excited!

This week we had a question to answer in our hopper post, and that questions is...

Tell us about some of your favorite authors and why they are your favorites!

I already wrote my adult reader post at my other blog, Book Addict Reviews, so you can check that out if you like.  Since this is a children's/young adult themed blog, I'll stick with my favorite authors in those two categories. (Picking just a couple is not easy, by the way!  I have so many favorites! Grrrrrrr....)

Old Favorites!
Tomie dePaola-I think that all of his books are charming as all get out.  Did you know that he has written or illustrated more than 200 books?!?  The man is prolific.  His stories are touching, and his always puts his own special flair on his stories.  The fact that he is gay, and that he had the courage to write Oliver Button is a Sissy (based on his own experiences as a child) makes me love him even more! 

Katherine Patterson-Oh, how I cried and cried when Leslie dies in Bridge to Terebithia!  And Jacob Have I Loved had me wanting to live on an island and be a fisherman.  I just think that her books really touch on the vulnerability that we all have growing up, when nothing we do feels quite right and we are terrified of doing the wrong thing. 

Madeleine L'Engle-A Wrinkle in Time...need I say more?  Not if you are a science fiction fan like me, and this novel was one of my first forays into that world. 

New Favorites: 
Suzanne Collins-I love Hunger Games and Catching Fire.  The way that Collins is able to merge story lines of first love and teenage angst with real life or death situations and social justice commentary is stunning for a young adult novelist.

Alex Sanchez-I just discovered him while doing a project on GLBT themed children's and young adult literature, and I think he is great.  I just finished Rainbow Boys, which was so heartbreaking and joyous I laughed and cried, but my favorite of his so far is The God Box.  The way that he dismantles the Biblical arguments against homosexuality is a thing of beauty.    

Neil Gaiman-His books are creepy and skewed and irreverant and deep.  I love the way his mind works, and while I wouldn't want to live in the world according to Gaiman all the time, I enjoy my trips there through his books, both young adult and adult.