Thursday, February 10, 2011

an early love

(a very short and incomplete reading memoir)
There is no frigate like a book 
to take us lands away....
~Emily Dickinson
When I was a child, I was entranced with books, or perhaps it was the stories...
My mother would sit in the hallway between my bedroom and my brother's and read to us from the Bible and the wonderful Narnia stories.  (Pauline Baynes' illustrations are magical!)
Circus Time (a Little Golden Book--remember those?), a book I loved and still own.
◊ I used to read at night under the covers with a flashlight.  
◊ I remember trading Nancy Drew books with my neighbor girlfriends.  (I still have some of those books.)
◊ In one of the elementary grades we were required to read books from different genres.  I remember being enthralled with sea creatures and intrigued by Mary, Queen of Scots.  
◊ Did you ever have to make a diorama for a book report?  I remember making one for Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager.
I loved Dr. Seuss books, Curious George, and Babar.  and fairy tales.  Oh, and definitely Laura Ingalls Wilder.  And then there's Pooh of course! See?  There is just no stopping!

Please tell me a favorite childhood book and/or childhood reading memory in your comments. 

Books to the ceiling
Books to the sky
My piles of books are a mile high
How I love them
How I need them
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
~Arnold Lobel 
This is a fun weekly meme under the direction of Jenny Matlock.  You, too, can join in the fun!  This week our letter is "R."  visit all the other wonderful entries HERE.



PS:  Check out this blog for wonderful children's book art and illustrators:  Children's/Fantasy Illustrations
photo © 2011; book art is also ©

17 comments:

  1. my favorite children memory is my mother sitting on my bed and we would read together. Favorite childhood book: Charlotte's Web! {:-D

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  2. I'm currently reading the entire collection of Curious George to my kids. I picked the volume up at Goodwill for a couple of bucks. Money well spent. Thanks for your sweet post.

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  3. Loved to read as a child -- still do! Read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys and pretty much anything I could get my hands on. Many a summer day was spent with a good book!
    ~Amanda

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  4. What a lovely post. I don't think Kindle will be the same!

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  5. I was a flashlight-under-the-cover or (when the flashlight was confiscated) a read-by-moonlight reader. I loved anything by Edgar Eager, but my absolute favorite book as a child was "A Wrinkle in Time."

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  6. As a small child, my favorite book was Rackety Boom, a lovely little tale about a boy who lived on a farm and their faithful, old, blue pick-up truck named Rackety Boom. I can still recite most of it by heart!

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  7. I loved all the the Louisa May Alcott books, as well as all of the "What Katy Did" books. Thanks for the memories!

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  8. I loved to read to my sons and now I read to my grandchildren. I loved Nancy Drew and my oldest Grandchild is interested in the teen mystery books too. He reads a lot of Star Wars and Harry Potter too.

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  9. My favorite childhood books were the Nancy Drew series...

    I still love them!

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  10. I have loved books as long as I can remember! I used to walk to the library in our small town and sit down and read the same books over and over. I also had the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Laura Ingalls Wilder books.

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  11. Oh, I loved that book about looking at the stars with daddy!

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  12. Cherished memory: Outside, under the stars, on a blanket with Mama and my four brothers. She was reading, "Thumbelina", and at one point she stopped reading and sang:
    "Thumbelina, Thumbelina,
    Tiny little thing.
    Thumbelina dance,
    Thumbelina sing.
    Thumbelina, what's the difference if you're big or small?
    When your heart is full of love,
    You're nine feet tall."

    Thanks for sharing your memories and sparking my own!

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  13. I didn't discover the love of books until I was a young adult..Once I had children of my own my love of books grew.. I have many fond memories of reading out loud to my kids and the excitement on their faces as the illustrations combined with the words came alive to them and now I have a grandchild to read too!

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  14. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting in my grandmother's lap and her reading to me. My favorite was (and still is) 'The Little Engine That Could'.

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  15. I have been reading to kids since mine were small. We had read aloud until my children were in sixth grade and then they read to me for awhile. Indian in the Cupboard and the Hatchet were always favorites. My littlest Grand now loves book like "Little Country Town" and the old Golden books.

    Thanks for the memories this link evoked. Those were certainly happy times.

    This was a great stop for Alphabe-Thursday's letter "R".

    Thank you for linking.

    A+

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  16. I used to get in trouble for reading too much since I never did anything else... haha! I loved Beverly Cleary and the Great Brain series by F Scott Fitzgerald. My Side of the Mountain was also a great story. Oh gosh, there are just too many to name!!

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Your comments make my day! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!