Shannon Hale

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Shannon Hale is the author of six young adult novels: the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy, multiple award winner the Book of a Thousand Days, and the highly acclaimed Books of Bayern series. She has also written three books for adults and has co-written two graphic novel with husband Dean Hale. They live near Salt Lake City, Utah with their four small children, and their pet, a small, plastic pig.



Author's Comment: At conferences and on my blog, I often speak about my concern that many people stop reading for pleasure once they leave high school. I think there are many reasons for this, but one of the big reasons I've been able to identify is because of the curriculum in high school. Because the only books assigned to me in high school were "great works of realistic literary fiction written 50-2000 years ago" (or, "the classics"), I came to believe that as an adult, the classics were the only books considered good for me and that they should comprise my reading for the rest of my life. It may seem silly to some, but I truly believed that. I recently wrote about my reading history for School Library Journal. As I've spoken with hundreds of teen and adult readers these past years, I've been astounded by how many people's experiences mirrored my own. Because of this, I speak out about the need to include in the high school curriculum some books that are not the classics.

Nationality: American