Bellis has gotten me hooked on these, the Friday Five.
1. What were your favorite childhood stories?
Like many children I always enjoyed any stories with fantastic settings and characters. Jungles, space, the ocean. Anything with sharks, dinosaurs, aliens, or robots. Anything with magic and any story which involved secrets. Any story which took place in the big, scary, and magical world of children.
2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children?
Trapped in Death Cave by Bill Wallace, The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks, The Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell (The awesome cartoon, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, is based on the work of this author), Bridge to Terabithia
by Katherine Paterson, The Sign of the Beaver
by Elizabeth George Speare, Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg, The Yearling
by Marjorie Rawlings, Socks for Supper by Jack Kent
3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything?
I’m sure I have, but I can’t remember right now. I do remember how sincere and honest the books often are, how the feeling of being young and alive seems so simple and clear. I guess later in life things somehow get less clear.
4. How old were you when you first learned to read?
My mother read to my brother and me all the time. She used to take us to the library to pick out all the books we’d be reading for the week. She was always encouraging and patient and helpful. How did she know how to do that? It must be some special magic.
5. Do you remember the first ‘grown-up’ book you read? How old were you?
The first real book I remember reading was Tom Sawyer in first or second grade. I remember discovering it at my after-school daycare, Noah’s Ark in Round Rock, Texas. I think the real reason I remember it is because not only did I steal it and then later
rebind it with duct tape but I also tried at different times in my childhood to emulate Tom Sawyer either by threatening to run away with our doberman, Inga, or by keeping June bugs stabled in matchboxes where they could be unleashed on unsuspecting girls. Muahaha. (I still have the purloined book. See images below: if you look closely at the illustration on the right you’ll see the matchbox beetle prison)
#1 kid’s book recommendation: Troll Country by James Marshall
#2: anything by Edith Nesbit, especially the magical stories (The Enchanted Castle is my #1 favorite)
#3: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
#4: anything by Edward Eager, especially Half Magic
#5: John Bellairs, especially The Curse of the Blue Figurine, though it made me have to sleep in my mom’s bed for a week because I was scared
Jack London, Francis Hodgsen Burnett, and definitely yes to the Bridge to Terabithia and Where the Red Fern Grows. I’ve bought my kids the Chronicles of Narnia and Madeline L’Engle’s series. Can’t wait till they’re old enough to sit through them!
Jack London, Francis Hodgsen Burnett, and definitely yes to the Bridge to Terabithia and Where the Red Fern Grows. I’ve bought my kids the Chronicles of Narnia and Madeline L’Engle’s series. Can’t wait till they’re old enough to sit through them!