Children’s book writers we’d like to meet:
1. Richard Peck – who else can teach the art of pranking and storytelling so masterfully at the same time?
2. Louis Sachar — let’s play bridge! We’d have to re-read The Cardturner to learn the rules, though…
3. Allen Say — would it be creepy if we just watched him draw?
4. Shaun Tan — ditto that.
5. Elizabeth Honey — in Australia, preferably. On a camping trip, with campfire tales about Henni and the rest of the gang!
6. JK Rowling — you know what would be awesome? Harry Potter, the tv series! Starring Hogwarts!
7. Neil Gaiman — Coraline, The Graveyard Book, and a Doctor Who tangent! Allons-y already!
8. Kate DiCamillo – a meeting over soup! No rats, please.
9. Nancy Farmer — can’t wait for the sequel to House of Scorpions!
10. Eoin Colfer — actually, we don’t know if we should be wary. He is the mastermind behind Artemis, after all, and he’s revamped our image of fairies…. 
11. E L Konigsburg — how awesome would it be to tour the Met with her?
12. Tom Angleberger — Star Wars origami lessons!
13. Adam Gidwitz — he has a new Grimm fairy tale book coming out this year!
14. Brian Selznick — can we visit his studio?
15. Sharon Creech — Walk Two Moons was one of the best road trips we ever took as kids.
16. Suzanne Collins — may the odds (of our meeting her) be ever in our favor…
17. Gary D. Schmidt — that would be, in a word, terrific.
18. Jean Craighead George — for wimpy non-outdoorsy kids like us, My Side of the Mountain was our survival guide of choice. Hatchet, not so much…
19. Richard Adams — never thought we would be so creeped out and captivated by a book about wild rabbits.
20. Harper Lee — need we say more?!? (But why would she want to meet us?)
These sound like great meetings! How about a camping trip with Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters) or a harmonica jam with Alison Goodman (Singing the Dogstar Blues)? I had always thought I would eventually meet Trina Schart Hyman, mainly because I wanted to go into her drawings.
Good suggestions! Kelly Link’s Stranger Things Happen is on my reading list
And yes, there are way too many authors we’d like to meet, not to mention illustrators. Good fodder for a future post…