What the writers read!(Various authors talk about their summertime reading memories.)

What's a good book to add to your summer reading list? Check out what some of our favorite authors say they remember about summertime reading when they were kids.

* Jane Yolen, best-selling author of more than 200 books for young readers, says:

"Summer is the best time for reading. Everything slows down to the rhythm of the long, slow passage of the sun in the sky. We live in Scotland in the summer, in half of an old mansion. I get to cuddle up on the sofa in the Great Hall, sunlight pouring through the two-story windows, with a favorite book--usually a mystery or a historical novel--and with my books travel to a different place and a different time."

* Tony DiTerlizzi, illustrator of the 2003 Caldecott Honor book, "The Spider and the Fly," and co-creator of "The Spiderwick Chronicles," says:

"I remember one year for Christmas, I received the book 'The Great Brain' by John D. Fitzgerald as a gift. I never got around to reading it because the drawing of the kid on the cover looked kind of spooky. Finally, over summer break, I found myself bored out of my mind, and finally gave the book a read--and became an instant fan. From Mercer Mayer's Sendak-ish drawings, to Fitzgerald's comedic writing, the characters and the old west setting were more enjoyable to me than any Mark Twain story."

* Holly Black, co-writer of "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and the writer of "Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale," says:

"Each summer, my dad figured that since we weren't going to school, we should clean our rooms. Our rooms were always messy and a lot of the mess in mine came from the fact that my books were always all over the floor and never in my bookcase. So, all summer, every time he tried to get us to clean up, I would sit on the floor and start to put my books away, but each time I picked up a book. I would read a little of it. And then, before I knew it, I would just be sitting on the floor reading and nothing would get done. I can't remember much of what I was re-reading, but the books I recall most were Lloyd Alexander's 'Prydain Chronicles,' Elizabeth Spear's 'The Witch of Blackbird Pond,' Madeline L'Engle's 'Wrinkle in Time' and fairytale books of all sizes and descriptions."