Mentioning Streatfeild made me think about some of the other childrens' writers I like. I find it a bit sad that J.K. Rowling seems, in the eyes of many, to be the greatest writer for children of all time. She's okay. However, I'm not the world's biggest Harry Potter fan. I bought the first one, and since then I've borrowed the rest from a friend because I feel somehow obligated to keep up with them, Harry being a cultural phenomenon and all. However, I find myself somewhat baffled by the success of the books, and I don't think that I would have loved them that much even as a kid. There are so many better writers out there who write the same kind of magical fantasy -- Jane Yolen, Diana Wynne Jones, Lucy M. Boston, Susan Cooper, to name a few. Lucy Boston's "Green Knowe" series are some of the best books I've ever read. Rowling's books, on the other hand, seem to borrow heavily from the already well-established fantasy genre and don't add much that's new. Once I put down a Harry Potter book, it leaves my mind immediately, while there are moments and characters from Jones, Boston, Cooper and Yolen that I'll probably never forget.

On the other hand, Rowling is probably the only person I've heard of (other than me) who's read Paul Gallico's MANXMOUSE, so we would probably have stuff to talk about.