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Who I Am

My name is Steven Hohenthaner (try saying that one five 

times fast). I am a college senior attending Black Hills 

University, residing in the fine state of South Dakota. I 

am working to attain a major in writing, and I hold 

ambitions of becoming a writer someday. While I’m not 

training to become a teacher, I joined this course to gain 

insight into young adult and children’s literature, 

something that has been provided quite well by the 

reading requirements of this course. 

My Story

Oh boy… not the oddest story out there but a convoluted one none 

the less. I was born to a pair of teachers working in an international 

school; specifically, the American School In Japan. I grew up 

overseas, and was born in my mother’s native home of England. 

Sufficed to say, it’s a bit of a story in of itself just explaining where 

I come from. But moving on, I grew up in Japan, but I never learnt 

how to speak the language save for a few phrases; attempts at 

integrating me with the language early on proved disastrous (I was 

a very… active child, to put it mildly). Despite that though, I had a 

good time growing up in Japan, and every summer my family would 

spend in Spearfish South Dakota, which happens to house the 

college I now partake in. Save for the early parts, my life isn’t 

much to speak of; I was born, I went to school, I graduated and 

then I went to college. 

Me and Reading

As with most people, this one starts with my parents. My parents both did 

a good deal to make me enjoy being read to, though for the most part I 

like most of my generation was a very close and intimate friend of the ol’ 

idiot box. Good times, those. That being said though, I always enjoyed 

being read to when I was a kid; Beatrix Potter, CS Lewis, Roald Dahl… my 

mom did a lot to ensure that I got familiarized with British authors at a 

young age, and once I entered school my teachers did plenty to expand 

my horizons further. But I still didn’t quite get into reading just then… I 

was a bit slow on discovering the joys of doing it on your own. Eventually 

though, I began to discover the joys of reading thanks to a trite, goofy, 

and downright insane series of books that was rather popular among 

children in the 90s; Goosebumps. Oh boy, when I look back at that one I 

find it a miracle that I ever enjoyed it, but isn’t that always the case? But 

yeah, after I accepted Goosebumps into my life things pretty much took off 

from there, and since then I’ve read a wide range of books covering a 

variety of subjects… though I have a preference for books about fantastic 

things. I never really moved on from that. 

Favorite Author

While R.L. Stine was my entryway into reading as a recreational activity, it 

was Bruce Coville that really, really made me love reading and imagination. 

Coville is an author of children’s and young adult novels, and what marks 

him as being particularly different from others of his ilk is just how wild his 

books can get; with titles like Space Brat, Aliens ate my Homework, and 

The Dragonslayers, his stuff is all over the place in terms of content matter 

and tends to be bound by a highly enjoyable style involving fantastic 

creatures and scenarios. Another thing that sets him apart is that some of 

his fiction can delve into the surprisingly dark without going too far into 

that direction that might be cause for controversy… personally after re-

reading several of his stories I wonder how he managed to duck attention 

for so long. Either way, as a kid this guy was my favorite, and I’d 

recommend him to any parents who want their kids to experience 

something wild that doesn’t end in a potential stay at the hospital. 

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