Fans pick 100 books like From Childhood to Adolescence

Wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, thinker. In the 1960s, after travel and study, and observing poverty, in the Middle East and Asia, I needed to find a way to help others. Montessori training and fifty years of work have given me the tools, not only to teach in schools, but to use Montessori principles in other situations. I am a speaker, school consultant, oral examiner for Montessori teacher training courses on six continents, and I have written eight books, each one presenting Montessori principles and practices in unique and practical ways. These books are being translated into many languages.

Wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, thinker. In the 1960s, after travel and study, and observing poverty, in the Middle East and Asia, I needed to find a way to help others. Montessori training and fifty years of work have given me the tools, not only to teach in schools, but to use Montessori principles in other situations. I am a speaker, school consultant, oral examiner for Montessori teacher training courses on six continents, and I have written eight books, each one presenting Montessori principles and practices in unique and practical ways. These books are being translated into many languages.

Wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, thinker. In the 1960s, after travel and study, and observing poverty, in the Middle East and Asia, I needed to find a way to help others. Montessori training and fifty years of work have given me the tools, not only to teach in schools, but to use Montessori principles in other situations. I am a speaker, school consultant, oral examiner for Montessori teacher training courses on six continents, and I have written eight books, each one presenting Montessori principles and practices in unique and practical ways. These books are being translated into many languages.

Wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, thinker. In the 1960s, after travel and study, and observing poverty, in the Middle East and Asia, I needed to find a way to help others. Montessori training and fifty years of work have given me the tools, not only to teach in schools, but to use Montessori principles in other situations. I am a speaker, school consultant, oral examiner for Montessori teacher training courses on six continents, and I have written eight books, each one presenting Montessori principles and practices in unique and practical ways. These books are being translated into many languages.

I’m the author of 25 children’s books, and I recently moved to a small mountain town that has come to co-exist with wild black bears by learning how to properly store and dispose of our food (rather than the alternative, which was to eliminate the bears!). Ever since I’ve lived there, I’ve been fascinated by human-bear interactions, having a few of my own now! When Yosemite Conservancy put out a call for children’s stories, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about—how people can help keep bears safe and wild through proper food storage. I’m a huge advocate for bears and all wildlife!

As a primary head teacher, then literacy consultant, I wrote many books about education but at the age of 50 I changed tack. A meeting with a researcher who’d discovered an alarming decline in young children’s listening skills led to eight years’ research on the effects of modern lifestyles on children’s development. It involved many interviews with experts on diet, sleep, play, language, family life, childcare, education, screen-time, marketing influences and parenting styles – and a great deal of reading. By the time Toxic Childhood was first published in 2006 I’d realised that, in a 21st century culture, society should be paying far more attention to child development, especially in the early years. I hope to go on spreading that message until my dying breath.

I am an award-winning author of two five-star rated memoirs: “My Whorizontal Life: An Escort’s Tale” and “A Someday Courtesan,” and the creator/performer of the 90-minute solo show: “My Whorizontal Life: The Show!” I co-host the podcast My Index to Sex. and I am a Juilliard Drama Graduate and the former #1 escort in the country. Thinking about how I grew up in a safe, typical suburb in the middle of America made me wonder if the things that happened to me with men as a girl happened to many women as we came of age in the 70s. 

I am fascinated by first-person points of view. In writing plays and screenplays, I couldn’t write the inner thoughts of my characters. Now, in novels and short stories, I do that almost exclusively, even if the stories contain multiple narrators. I love the Unreliable Narrator—whether it is someone too young to understand what they are witnessing, someone who is in denial, or mentally ill, or a non-human experiencing the world in an odd way—the discrepancy between their view and mine delights me. I love discovering all those inner thoughts, fears, anxieties, and desires. These first-person stories let me into another’s experience and allow me to empathize with a whole new perspective.  

Ever since I first read Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, I have been enamored of all things weird and creepy—so much so, in fact, that when I grew up, I started writing my own weird, creepy things! As a writer, I am drawn to horror that is shaped by its characters’ inner worlds, stories that explore the monsters in our heads, as well as our closets. The books on this list will haunt me for years to come. I hope that they will haunt you, too.

I am convinced that my life would be better if I had read more books by Latina/Latine authors while growing up. To be able to see oneself in a story is powerful. I didn’t have that for a long time. It made me feel invisible. It made me feel like being an author was as realistic as becoming an astronaut or a performer in Cirque du Soleil. Now, as a professor of Creative Writing and author of several books (and more on the way!), I dedicated my life to writing the books I needed as a young Latina. I hope others find something meaningful in my stories, too.