Here’s the one that did it for me. No great coincidence that it’s a YA novel. Not just a YA novel – but one of the all-time great YA novels.

And a few years ago, when my daughter was in elementary school, I found myself smiling a secret, wonderful smile when she suddenly started following me around with a notebook, peeping at me from behind furniture before she told me she was going for a walk – with the notebook tucked under her arm.

People watching is a must if you’re a writer, or want to be. Inventing their stories in your head (and also being wonderfully surprised to find out how right or wrong you were) is all part of the process.

Harriet the Spy put a name to the very thing I already was but didn’t realize: writer.

What about you? What book did it for you?