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| photo: Dion Ogust | |
Ann M. Martin is the bestselling author of Rain Reign, and many other award-winning novels and series, including the much-loved Baby-Sitters Club. Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Whatever Cure (Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan, September 6, 2016) launches a series starring Missy Piggle-Wiggle, the great-niece of Betty MacDonald's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, who takes up the family business of offering cures for misbehaving children. Written in collaboration with Betty MacDonald's great-granddaughter Annie Parnell, Missy Piggle Wiggle is illustrated by Ben Hatke. Martin lives in upstate New York.
On your nightstand now:
The Color of Water by James McBride; Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf; You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan; 11/22/63 by Stephen King.
Favorite book when you were a child:
It's almost impossible to choose just one favorite. I loved to read, and read voraciously. Two of my favorite picture books were The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton and Wait Till the Moon Is Full by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Garth Williams. When I was older, I checked out all the horse stories by Marguerite Henry from my school library. Then I turned to fantasy--the Wizard of Oz books, the Doctor Dolittle books, stories by Roald Dahl, my mother's old copies of the Mary Poppins books. The list goes on and on.
Your top five authors:
I'll admit that the list changes frequently, but the current occupants of the top five spots are, in no particular order: John Steinbeck, Louise Penny, Harper Lee, Stephen King and Shirley Jackson.
Book you've faked reading:
I haven't faked reading it, but one book I feel I should not only read but profess to find life-changing is Jack Kerouac's On the Road. I've tried it several times and can't get beyond the first few pages.
Book you are an evangelist for:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
Book you've bought for the cover:
'Tis the Season to Be Felt-y by Kathy Sheldon. I really thought I would make every single Christmas ornament in this book. So far I have made zero.
Book you hid from your parents:
I don't remember hiding anything from them, but I distinctly remember the book my mother hid from me: Rosemary's Baby. I was 13 and desperate to read it, but my mother forbade it. When I wouldn't stop pestering her about it, she took it across the street and gave it to our neighbors.
Book that changed your life:
The Diary of Anne Frank.
Favorite line from a book:
Can I choose a favorite chapter? It's chapter 11 in The Grapes of Wrath, the descriptions of the empty houses and abandoned properties, left behind when families fled to California during the Dust Bowl.
Five books you'll never part with:
To Kill a Mockingbird; The Grapes of Wrath; my old copies of The Little House and Wait Till the Moon Is Full; and Bag of Bones, signed to me by Stephen King.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I want to explore Misselthwaite Manor with Mary Lennox again, before I knew what was behind all those doors.