These are just a few of the wonderful books that have inspired me over the years.  Check back, because I’m sure I will be adding to the list over time.

Picture Books

Gorilla by Anthony Browne
Alphabeasts by Wallace Edwards
The Dream of Aengus by Joanne Findon, illustrated by Ted Nasmith
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Boy Soup by Loris Lesynski
Bluberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Creatures by Frank Newfeld
When You Were Small by Sara O’Leary, illustrated by Julie Morstad
The Party by Barbara Reid
Red is Best by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Robin Baird Lewis
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg
King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood
Zoom at Sea by Tim Wynne-Jones, illustrated by Eric Beddows

Middle Readers

The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville
The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
Johnny Kellock Died Today by Hadley Dyer
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
Kalifax by Duncan Thornton

For Young Adults

The Last Unicorn by Pete Beagle
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Deathscent by Robin Jarvis
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin
The Changeover by Margaret Mahy
Sabriel by Garth Nix
The Wings of a Falcon by Cynthia Voigt

For Adults

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
The Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon