Journalists are a varied bunch, for sure, but we all have one thing in common: a love of reading.

As National Library Week kicks off today — and in support of the printed word — Honolulu Star-Advertiser staff writers share their thoughts on the books they enjoyed as children and young adults.

Find these titles and many more at your neighborhood or school library.

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Do girls still go gaga over stories about horses? “Black Beauty,” “Misty of Chincoteague,” “National Velvet” — all are winners, but Walter Farley’s 1941 young-adult novel “The Black Stallion” is an especially stirring choice. Alec Ramsay and the Black survive a shipwreck and form a special bond while marooned on an island — what a dream!

Once rescued together, Alec befriends a horse trainer and fulfills Black’s destiny, despite the horse’s lack of pedigree, leading the stallion to victory in a dramatic race.

The novel is an American classic, extolling loyalty, bravery and self-actualization. (Special shout-out to Carroll Ballard’s spirited 1979 film version, which added poetic beauty and Mickey Rooney to the tale.)

— Elizabeth Kieszkowski, Star-Advertiser

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As a bookworm growing up, one of my all-time favorites was Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time.” Entering this imaginary world of tesseracts and Black Things and Mrs. Who, Which and Whatsit was a great escape. I identified with characters such as Meg and Charles Wallace — kids who weren’t part of the ‘“in crowd” at school. I loved L’Engle’s expressive language, which drew you into this other world, and the sense of family among her assortment of characters.

In fifth grade, my best friend and I each wrote a letter to L’Engle addressed to the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, telling her how much we loved her books. We were beyond excited to get a handwritten note and thank-you card from the author. Of course, I went on to read all the sequels.

Today, I still love “Wrinkle’s” universal and timeless message: that love conquers all darkness.

— Nina Wu, Star-Advertiser

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He’s full of adventure, curiosity and determination. What’s not to love about Curious George? I can’t count the number of times I read and reread the stories that detailed the mischievous monkey’s outlandish antics.

In the original tale, published in 1941, George was whisked away from his jungle home in Africa by the Man with the Yellow Hat. While appalling and politically incorrect by modern standards, I like to focus on how happy the ever-smiling George seemed in his new surroundings, which provided him with endless new adventures.

Among my favorites are “Curious George Goes to the Hospital,” necessary after the monkey eats a puzzle piece, and “Curious George Goes Camping,” where he’s sprayed by a skunk and later extinguishes a forest fire.

Knowing that authors H.A. and Margret Rey brought their manuscripts along as they fled Nazi Germany on bicycles with just a few belongings makes the stories extra special. Their books nurtured my lifelong love of reading.

— Nancy Arcayna, Star-Advertiser

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When we lived briefly in L.A., we’d escape to the Santa Monica mansion of my mother’s college friends. They had a girl my age, 8, and a boy my brother’s, 5, and on their shelves I discovered the entertaining books of Edward Eager.

In “Knight’s Castle,” Roger and Ann learn their father is gravely ill. That night, one of Roger’s toy medieval knights awakens and bemoans “a murrain” (plague). Roger takes him along when they are sent to stay with their cousins. The four children build a castle with canned peas for a tower, and at night, figurines of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, Rebecca, the gluttonous Rowena (“pass the stuffed dates”) and dastardly Brian de Bois-Guilbert come to life.

Roger and Ann embark on a quest to save a maiden in distress and, quite possibly, their father. Their adventures helped me find the magic in my own life.

— Mindy Pennybacker, Star-Advertiser

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Before I played my first educational computer game in elementary school or knew anything about watching the Disney Channel on TV, I was already down with Dr. Seuss and his 1960 best-seller, “Green Eggs and Ham.”

As a kid, it was fun to see little Sam-I-Am keep after his bigger, grumpier unnamed nemesis who refused to sample the book’s namesake dish. Now a parent myself, I admire the book’s message of keeping an open mind about something you’ve never tried because you just may end up liking it.

The story continues to resonate even in today’s online world, with Ellen Degeneres working with Netflix to produce an animated version of “Green Eggs and Ham” expected in 2018.

— Jason Genegabus, Star-Advertiser

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“Anne of Green Gables,” by L.M. Montgomery, is the story of an introverted girl with an overactive imagination and a way with words. It’s no wonder I related to the heroine in a way I’d never connected with a character before. Nevermind that the story was written in 1908.

The classic tale of adopted Anne Shirley and her friends living in the sleepy town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island in Canada conjours imagery of a time when people made their own clothes and attended one big schoolhouse with children of every age. No social media or 24-hour news cycle here.

But kids are kids no matter what the era. School rivalries, fashion fads, best friends, crushes, college exam anxiety — it’s all here. When short-tempered Anne cracks her slate on the head of the boy teasing her, it’s a timeless gesture.

— Donica Kaneshiro

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The “Winnie-the-Pooh” books were a wonderful introduction to that world between reality and imagination, so well written that a child could take them as the former and an adult enjoy them as the latter. A.A. Milne’s stories, based on his son Christopher Robin’s playtime interaction with his stuffed animals, were gentle tales that revealed that problems can exist at any level, whether it was Pooh getting his head caught in a jar of honey or Eeyore losing his tail.

Other than Pooh himself, the melancholy donkey was my favorite character. E.H Shepard’s illustrations were perfect. (I couldn’t bear to watch the animated cartoons, since they took away that element of imagination that was key to the stories.)

Years later, when I became a big fan of the “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip, which similarly is about a boy who addresses philosophical issues with his stuffed tiger, I gave thanks to Milne for establishing a genre that worked so effectively for exploring the small and large questions of life.

— Steven Mark, Star-Advertiser

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Two beloved tales of maternal devotion — Margaret Wise Brown’s “The Runaway Bunny” and Robert Munsch’s tear-jerker, “Love You Forever” — were favorites at our house for bedtime cuddling. Revisiting these classics today, they read more like horror stories about deranged stalkers. I mean, who drives across town with a ladder so she can climb up to her adult son’s second-story bedroom and cradle him as he sleeps? Creepy!

We joke about that now, but the books have new poignancy for this mom who’s having trouble letting go. And maybe for the kids too. My son recently surprised me with a copy of “Forever,” and when I asked my daughter about her favorite childhood book for this piece, she immediately produced the “Bunny” boardbook she got in her Easter basket not too long ago.

The moral of this story? Books are the ties that bind … and you’re never too grown up for a good cuddle.

Now where’s that ladder?

— Christie Wilson, Star-Advertiser

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Forget Elmo. The greatest of all “Sesame Street” characters is Grover, innocent, furry, nervous and adorable Grover. He breaks the fourth wall in “The Monster at the End of This Book,” by Jon Stone, illustrated by Mike Smollin, as he begs the reader not to turn the page because … there’s a monster back there! He tries ropes, wooden planks, a brick wall, but each time the young reader turns the page, the suspense builds, and then … well, not to spoil anything, but you know, Grover is a monster.

The book is interactive despite being just words on paper. It challenges young concepts of “monster.” It encourages dramatic reading (and page turning) among 2-year-olds.

I bought this Little Golden Book for 99 cents when my daughter was a toddler. She wrote her name in it; a few years later we added her little brother’s. We read it over and over, and it was the first book my son could sound out on his own. I will never give it up.

— Betty Shimabukuro, Star-Advertiser

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What resonated as much as the story in “The Outsiders” was the fact that its author, S.E. Hinton, was a teenager herself when she started writing the story. I was 12 or 13 when I read the book, so its themes of teenage rebellion, alienation and rival gangs divided by socioeconomic status rang true with me, a kid from Waipahu — the proverbial wrong side of the tracks — who understood the uneven treatment accorded society’s haves and have-nots.

I had a happy, sheltered childhood but the book opened my eyes to societal inequities. I saw how the media turned its attention on Waipahu only when there was a shooting or knifing, painting an unfair picture of the other 99 percent of residents. That image still registers today in the form of backhanded compliments when people learn of my roots. “Well, you’ve done well for yourself,” they sniff when they learn I am a product of the Leeward side and not some private school in town.

I identified closely with the Greaser gang’s Ponyboy Curtis and his brothers, impoverished but decent human beings perceived as trash by the community. So when a murder takes place involving one of the Soces (the more upscale Socials), it’s easy to see how there can be no good outcome for the Greasers.

It taught me the power of an idea to shape reality and ultimately led me to fall in love with the “bad” boy with the heart of gold, who I eventually married.

— Nadine Kam, Star-Advertiser

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I discovered the “Doctor Dolittle” series when I was in the first grade. My elementary school had an excellent library and I read every book in the series. Author Hugh Lofting’s portly hero preferred the company of animals over that of most humans — I could relate to that! — and he and his animal friends had fascinating adventures.

Dolittle helped the Royal Navy intercept a ship filled with slaves off the coast of Africa, traveled to South America to find the great Native American naturalist Long Arrow, and flew to the moon aboard a giant extraterrestrial moth. Even when the stories took place at Dolittle’s home in the fictional English village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh they were imaginative and entertaining. Each book gently teaches young readers that animals are worthy of our respect.

— John Berger, Star-Advertiser