Ebony Thomas is the author of “The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games.” For her the most important word in that title is "imagination." She believes that without imagination we can't change the world because we can't see it. We can't daydream a better world into existence. It's why she's always identified with another literary daydreamer — Anne of Green Gables.

Hi, my name is Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. I am the author of "The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games."

My favorite book has changed over time. My favorites were Beverly Cleary's stories about Ramona and Judy Blume's stories about Peter and his little brother Fudge, because Fudge reminded me of my little sister, Danielle. By the time I was nine, my parents gifted me with "The Little House on the Prairie" series, which I have critiqued 30 years later.

I have to say that I encountered my favorite girl protagonist of all, Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables. I remember encountering Anne when I was 12 years old, not through the library or a bookstore, but through PBS and the CBC. I grew up in Detroit, we were right next door to Canada and so we had channel nine, CBC. They were airing a little series titled "Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel" over in Canada, and "Anne of Avonlea" here in the States.

And I will never forget seeing Anne and her neighbor, rival, and eventual love interest, Gilbert Blythe, on a bridge. It was just at the right time of my life. I was 12 years old, quite romantic, head full of dreams. I remember Gilbert telling Anne, "I won't leave you." There was something about that encounter that just really struck me. When I went to the library next, I went to search for the books and come to find out there were eight stories in total. I picked up everything I could get my hands on. Lucy Maud Montgomery told Anne's story from the time she was 11 years old until she was in her 50s.

That is how I fell into the world of Avonlea, And I was hoping to go to Prince Edward Island this year for the conference, but the pandemic stopped that. That was my favorite book growing up and my favorite story girl.

—This author recommends—

Anne of Green Gables (Puffin in Bloom)

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain is one of the most controversial books in the American literary canon, particularly because of its frequent use of the N word. But for Enrique Salmon, a young Native kid trying to master the English language, “Huckleberry Finn” was the book that launched his lifelong love of reading.

I'm Enrique Salmon. I'm a professor of American Indian Studies at California State University East Bay. And I've also written the book, “Eating the Landscape,” and I have a book coming out right now about American Indian ethnobotany called “Iwígara.”

When I was growing up, I couldn't really read or write or speak English very well, up until like 11th grade. It was amazing I even made it to 11th grade. And then there was a teacher, an English teacher, Mrs. Anderson, who decided she was going to bring me up to speed with regards to being able to read and write in English. And she introduced me to Mark Twain, and more specifically, “Huckleberry Finn.”

And I remember working my way through “Huckleberry Finn,” and reading about Huck and Jim and the Mississippi River and all of those things. It really had this impact on me as a person of color of how people from different ethnic backgrounds can just be friends, in that space along the Mississippi River and in this area that was actually very racist.

I can understand where people are coming from with the use of the N word that Mark Twain used. But I look at it from the perspective that the Mark Twain was writing in a period and from a perspective, emerging from his own experience. He never says if he liked or disliked the word, it was just, that was his experience, then the fictional characters experience. And we have to acknowledge that experience and be mindful of that.

Cultures and people change through time, and today we realize that that word is not acceptable anymore, and we have to respect that as well.

That book led me to other Mark Twain books, that led me to Hemingway and “The Old Man and the Sea,” that led me to Steinbeck, and to Faulkner. And then, and ever since, I've just had this incredible fascination with books and with reading and to the point where I'm a writer myself.

And that's the power of an 11th-grade English teacher, taking it upon herself to teach a young Native guy to read and write through Mark Twain.

—This author recommends—

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (SeaWolf Press Illustrated Classic): First Edition Cover

There’s a book that Ada Calhoun, author of “Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis“ thinks of as both one of her favorites to read out loud with her son, as well as one that has inspired her own writing. It’s “A Street Through Time: The 12,000 Year Journey Along the Same Street,” Illustrated by Steve Noon and written by Anne Millard. The book is the story of one street, leading the reader through historical events and the passage of time, with the street itself starring as the main character.

My name is Ada Calhoun and I'm the author of "Why We Can't Sleep Women's New Midlife Crisis."

When I was the mother of a young child, I was reading this book to him and it was called "A Street Through Time: The 12,000 Year Journey Along the Same Street," Illustrated by Steve Noon and written by Dr. Anne Millard.

The great thing about it, it's mostly pictures of the same street and every time you turn the page it's hundreds of years later. So the houses go up and there's an invasion. The houses come down and then they come back up again and then they get bigger.

What I love about this book is, first of all, it gives you this amazing history lesson, because you see how world civilization has evolved over thousands of years. And then also it just gives you the sense of perspective about how small we are and how different things have been just not that long ago.

And I love it that you'll see somebody will drop his sword in a battle and then another, 200 years later, someone will fish out the sword while they're out in their rowboat. And it inspired me a lot when I started working on a book about the history of my street, St. Mark's Place in the East Village, that's where I grew up, called St. Mark's is Dead: the Many Lives of America's Hippest Street. And I feel like I was really influenced by that way of looking at history. As you look at this, this one piece of land, and it's a stage and people come onto the stage and they have a fight or they have a conversation and then some people leave the stage and other people come on the stage.

And so, thinking of the street as a stage where things change, but it's like a fixed place, was really, really helpful to me and I think it inspired me to do the book the way I did it. Then that book did pretty well. And then I was able to do another book and then I was able to do this book. So I kind of, I traced my whole career back to reading that children's book to my son many years ago.

I like it because, yeah, we sort of think of that as anti-career time. In ways sometimes I think, okay, I'm not going to work right now. I'm going to focus on my child. Or I'm going to have to step away from my child and go do my work. But I think a lot of the best things with both are when they come together. And I think about now, reading that book to my son was really creative for me. It was really inspirational. And it, I feel like led basically my whole writing career in some ways.

—This author recommends—

A Street Through Time: A 12,000 Year Journey Along the Same Street

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