BY KATHI KAMEN GOLDMARK AND SAM BARRY

The Author Enablers are here to answer your questions about writing and publishing. Together, Kathi and Sam have more than 25 years of experience in book publishing. Kathi is an author, radio producer and former publicist; Sam is a marketing manager at a major publishing company and a freelance editor. They are also proud members of the Rock Bottom Remainders, the all-author rock band founded by Kathi in 1992.

Hitting rock bottom on gifts for kids

Dear BookPage Readers,

It's become a holiday tradition here at Author Enablers' World Headquarters to give preference to questions written on $20 bills and single-malt Scotch labels, but BookPage has informed us there may be some ethical problems with that approach—apparently you're not supposed to use U.S. currency as notepaper. Who knew?

Another of our holiday traditions is to ask favorite authors to recommend favorite books for gift-giving. As you may know, we are proud members of The Rock Bottom Remainders, the all-author band that's been playing bad rock & roll for good causes—raising money for worthy charities—for more than 16 years. But we're letting you in on a little secret: our primary motive is not philanthropy. Our primary motive is actually the pathetic baby-boomer need to hang on (with increasingly flabby middle-aged arms) to our immaturity. In that spirit, we polled our bandmates and asked them to come up with favorite books for your favorite child.

Dave Barry, lead guitar (author of Science Fair): For girls, I highly recommend the Doll People series by Ann Martin, Laura Godwin and Brian Selznick. These three books—The Doll People, The Meanest Doll in the World, and The Runaway Dolls—are wonderfully imaginative and have great page-turner plots. I read the first two to my daughter, Sophie, who would not let me stop reading; she devoured the third on her own. For younger readers, you can't beat the Pigeon books by Mo Willems [Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, etc.] which are hilarious and a little weird, not unlike Mo Willems himself.

Roy Blount Jr., background vocals (author of Alphabet Juice): Mrs. Discombobulous, by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Jan Brychta. The eponymous Mrs. D. is always all up in her husband's face—she calls him, among other things, "Mr. Tom Fool Noodle"—but then she falls into the washing machine, and after due consideration—"Swish swash do the wash, swish swash do the wash"—he saves her. She is moved to think about the way she has been talking to him and she promises to be nicer. That's the bare bones, which are fleshed out by lots of colorful vituperation from the Mrs., which my kids loved to hear and to repeat, and which I loved to read aloud. As I recall, the washing machine also goes "Frooom."

James McBride, saxophone (author of Song Yet Sung): I liked Beverly Cleary's books on Henry Huggins when I was a kid because I always wanted my own bicycle. That took years to happen, and by the time I got a bicycle I was so old I didn't like her books any more.

Amy Tan, rhythm dominatrix (author of Saving Fish from Drowning): The Little Prince. It's a book for all ages, and at all ages we experience moments of loss and also become lost. The Little Prince is able to find what matters by looking beyond assumptions. He reminds us to not limit our hope to what we assume is "realistic." He thinks you can still find what most think is forever gone. It's a good book to read when you are becoming cynical about the world—in other words, a book for many to read now.

We have a new favorite kids' book, too. That's right—Moby-Dick! No, that's not it. It's Science Fair. And we promise we're not just recommending Science Fair because of our close personal connection to the co-authors, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (bass). This story of an eighth-grade science fair gone mad is seriously funny, from the opening scene with five hairy men in Krpshtskan (a poor, mountainous nation of many goats but few vowels) plotting to take over the United States, right through the levitating frog and beyond. It's perfect for those of us who enjoy reading books for nine to 12 year olds (even if we don't know any kids that age to read them to) because they have great stories and, let's face it, because we're not very mature. Not that this describes anyone else we know. Happy reading, and happy holidays!