Erik P. Kraft

• Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
• Lovecraft's grocery lists are enough to make modern day vampires wet their pants.
• The Cut-ups Cut Loose
• Features Lamar J. Spurgle and his repulsive dog Bessie!
• Dooley and the Snortsnoot
• Picture book about a giant who isn't giant yet. Also, a Snortsnoot.
• Welcome to the Monkey House

• I loved no writer more than Kurt Vonnegut as a teen. His short stories might be an easy entry for the uninitiated.

• The Complete Saki
• Maybe not for everyone (subversive Victorian short stories, as if being subversive around Victorians is hard), but worth the price of admission for "The Lumber-Room" and "Reginald's Choir Treat."

Tony DiTerlizzi

• Peter Pan and Wendy

• J.M. Barrie's classic has surly pirates, bloodthirsty native Americans, a hungry crocodile, feisty faeries and flying kids with weapons . . . what more could you ask for?

• Watership Down

• Richard Adams takes you on an incredible quest from a home colony that’s completely eradicated to Shangri la. One the way, there are monsters, villains, allies, oh, and a fascist leader trying to seize the hero's new home . . . and its all told with rabbits. You read that right — rabbits.

• The Mouse and the Motorcycle

• Mouse buddy + toy motorcycle = Awesome!

• The Lorax

• In my mind, this one of Dr. Seuss’s undisputed classics. Sadly, we need the Lorax now more than ever.

• Lafcadio: The Lion That Shot Back

• One of Shel Silverstein's lesser known titles, but one of my all-time favorites. Actually, I learned about this one when my younger brother read it for school and had me help with his book report. It is one of those stories that you will always remember.

Bruce Hale

• Percy Jackson and The Olympians

• Exciting, funny, and occasionally gross. What more could you want?

• The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games, Book 1

• Intense stuff — reality TV taken to the extreme — but I couldn't put it down.

• The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian

• Funny, touching, and fascinating — plus it has excellent cartoons.

• Out from Boneville, Boneville Series, #1

• Love the drawings, love the characters, love the stories.

• Whales On Stilts

• Straight-out wacky, hilarious stuff.

Peter Brown

• George and Martha, George and Martha

• I can't overemphasize how perfectly James Marshall balances sweetness and absurdity in these stories.

• Everyone Poops

• Everyone Poops is a continuous source of 'inspiration.

• James and the Giant Peach

• Witty dialogue, fantastical adventure and a wonderfully dark sense of humor seem to effortlessly flow from Roald Dahl's pen.

• His Dark Materials

• This series is perhaps the most unique, thoughtful, and provocative fantasy I’ve ever read.

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

• I was mesmerized by the way Verne describes the science and logic of the world in which this story takes place.

Michael Buckley

• The Outsiders

• A timeless story of outcasts versus the privileged. Exciting and heartbreaking — Hinton should be applauded for understanding the mind of a guy so well.

• All Star Superman Books 1 and 2

• Lex Luthor finally finds a way to kill Superman and the Big Blue Boy Scout prepares for his death with a shocking ending no one could have seen.

• Lord of the Flies

• A ship full of children from an all boys' school crashes on the beach of a deserted island. Unfortunately, it isn't long before the kids stop working together and break up into tribes with dark and deadly results.

• Pinocchio

• Most people have seen the movie but few have read the book and that’s a shame. Pinocchio is a walking nightmare and hilarious.

• The Graveyard Book

• An adaptation of the Jungle Book but instead of a boy being raised by wolves, he's reared by ghosts in an abandoned cemetery. It's chilling and dark, yet a powerful lesson on how a boy becomes a man.