In the following excerpt, Pierce herself likens fantastic literature to "fuel" essential for the imaginations of young minds.

I wonder why readers choose to read fantasy; rather, I wonder why more of them don't. Until they reach school age, children are offered little else on almost a continuous basis. The groundwork for a love of the fanciful is laid by children's literature, from A. A. Milne to Dr. Seuss, and from Curious George to Max and his Wild Things.

Once children enter school, however, emphasis shifts from imaginative to reality-based writing, and many youngsters grow away from speculative fiction—but not all. Those who stay with it do so for many reasons, and it comes to fill a number of needs in their lives.

One of the things I have learned about YAs is that they respond to the idealism and imagination they find in everything they...