You know those books that you read over and over? The ones that you make excuses to read aloud because technically they’re children’s books, or young adult fiction and you really aren’t either a child or a young adult anymore.
Winnie-the-Pooh is like that for me, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Diana Wynne Jones. I’ve read the first two to the children but have been waiting (and quietly rereading) to read Diane Wynne Jones to the children.
Technically her books are Young Adult Fantasy, but they are really much more than they seem. They deal with the angst of growing up, the pain of being an outsider and the unknowability of life with humor and courage and love.
I never met the author, but I know she influenced me and reading the eulogies being written about her today, she had an influence on many of today’s writers and thinkers. She will be missed.
You can read more about her and her books here.