Guest Post: My Favorite Childhood Book

My Favorite Childhood Book

By Dawn Little, www.linkstoliteracy.com

I met my favorite childhood author yesterday. It’s a memory that will last forever.

I have been writing this post in my head for weeks. Sounded simple enough; write about my favorite childhood book. Problem was, I couldn’t think of just one favorite. Books have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. So many books from my childhood have made an impression on me in one way or another. Could I really choose just one? That’s almost like having to choose just one of my children as a “favorite.” Ok, not quite, but still! So, I began to try to narrow down my list. As I did so, I began to see a pattern. Four Judy Blume books were on the list. Apparently, I liked a particular author.

It just so happened that Judy Blume was going to be at the National Book Festival and I was planning on attending! The day before the festival, I went to my mom’s house and dug through boxes of my childhood books. It was just as I suspected – multiple copies of Judy Blume’s books were in the boxes. Apparently, I liked several of them so much; I had more than one copy! The worn covers showed just how much I loved those books.

The characters in Judy Blume’s books were so realistic. In Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, I saw myself in Peter, and my little brother in Fudge (and boy was he!). I, the responsible older sibling, often got in trouble for my younger sibling’s antics. In Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, I learned about the female rite of passage into womanhood. Through Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, I learned how to love myself for who I was. And Blubber taught me how to be a good friend...even if it meant going against the crowd.

To this day, the lessons I learned from these books stick with me. I’m still the responsible older sibling, I love me for me, and I tend not to follow the crowd. While, I’m sure my parents deserve most of the credit for the adult I have turned out to be, I think that my childhood books can share some of that credit, too. The books I turned to again and again helped shape the adult I am today. I’m sure of it. I can’t wait to share these same books with my children. Being able to turn to books that helped me through my childhood, as I am raising my own kids, somehow seems comforting.

So perhaps I cheated. Instead of writing about my favorite childhood book, I wrote about my favorite childhood author. Her books shaped my life and so I find it fitting that I share several childhood favorites instead of just one.

I met my favorite childhood author yesterday. It’s a memory that will last forever.


Dawn Little is a mother of two, an educator, and the founder of Links to Literacy. It is her hope that every child will grow up to be engaged, lifelong readers. Therefore, she aims to provide services that will engage children and aid parents and educators in providing hands-on literacy learning experiences for their children.

A Guest Post: Connecting the Dots

As a little girl, I don’t remember ever wanting to sit down and read a book. What I do fondly remember is watching my mother curl up on the couch with a juicy red tomato reading one of her favorite, worn out paperback novels. I also remember listening to my mother read bedtime stories to my little brothers night after night. My mother always modeled a passion for reading that I desired to have. However, for me reading was like a juicy ripe tomato- it looked delicious but each time I took a bite, it tasted bitter.

Over the years, my mother gave me a respect for reading but it wasn’t until my first teaching experience that I found a love for reading. As an early childhood educator, I began reading books to my students by authors such as Eric Carle, Denise Flemming, Jan Brett, Tomie dePaola, Shel Silverstein, Ezra Jack Keats, and Robert Munsch. This experience took the “bitter” out of reading for me.

As I selected books to read aloud to my students, my mind would twirl with ideas of other activities I could do with my students. For example, if I read “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Eric Carle to my students we would then turn our entire environment into a world of bears and other colorful animals. My imagination was sparked and my students and I enjoyed entire classroom experiences based on the story told in one simple book. That book soon would become a favorite and we would read it many times over.

The dots were starting to be connected and I soon found my own love for reading. I now have my own stack of worn out novels sitting by the couch – only I eat apples. My mother’s positive role modeling left me with a desire to read and by creating experiences from the books read to my students, I began to find personal joy in reading.

As a parent, you can greatly influence your child’s love for reading.

* Role model positive reading habits. Let your child see you enjoy reading whether it is the Sunday paper at the breakfast table or a novel on the living room couch. Children need to see reading as a safe, relaxing, and enjoyable experience.
* When reading to your preschooler, choose books that he or she can relate to and that will spark ideas and imagination.
* When finished reading, bring the story to life. If the characters in the book bake cookies, try baking cookies just like they did in the book. Make reading a meaningful experience that goes beyond the pages of the book.

Help your child to connect the dots and develop a life-long love for reading. Thanks for allowing me to share my memories with you.

Deborah J. Stewart

Promoting excellence in preschool!

www.deborahjstewart.com

www.preschoolprofessional.com

My Favorite Childhood Book: A Guest Post

When Tara asked me to write about my favourite book from my childhood I thought it was a great idea. I love to read, write, and review books for kids. Obviously, this love must have stemmed from a childhood full of great favourites. The hardest part would be choosing just one to write about.

So there I sat, hands hovering my keyboard, waiting. Then it hit me; I couldn't think of anything from my early childhood years. That's not to say I don't have a favourite book, it's just that my favourite is from my early teen years. And although at the time I wouldn't have thought myself a child, the teen years are still part of your childhood.


The book I'm thinking about is The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton. I even did a review on this book as part of my Write a Review Wednesday posts. I remember receiving this book from my parents the Christmas of my 13th year. It's the only book from my childhood that I still have. I use to have the original gift tag also but over time and moves that has gone missing.

The characters in the book: Penny, Pamela, Patsy, Peter and Paul (also referred to as the Polywog) are based on Pierre Burton's actual children. Most of the story takes place in a secret underground world called Og. The kids discover this colourful world of mushroom shaped houses when the Polywog disappears through a trap door hidden in the floor of the kid's playhouse.

As a youth I loved the fantasy world of little green people living under our world. I loved following the adventures of the five siblings as they tried to find and rescue their little brother while avoiding being captured and hung. Although the story seemed too fantastic to be true, the way Pierre Burton wrote it made you doubt your sense of reality.

But I think what moves this from being just a good book to being a great book is because I enjoy the story just as much even now as an adult. Perhaps that's why this book has made such an impression on me. The elements of the book I enjoyed when I was younger I still enjoy now, but as an adult I can see other layers to the story. The similarity between our world and the world below. Pierre Burton's take on all the items that go missing in our world and how they become an integral part of the Secret World of Og.

Even at the end, crisis averted and the kids back home above ground, the reader is left wondering if the story happened or if the kids imagined it all.

I look forward to someday sharing this story with my kids (I think it's a little scary for them right now). I wonder if the story will make the same impression on my kids that it made on me. And years from now, if Tara asked my kids the same question, I wonder what their response would be. But until that day, I'll share with my kids many books from our home collection and library; many books so they will have many to choose from.

Cheers,
Carrie Anne
Traveling the obstacle course known as my life, with kids, work, writing and all.
Another day. Another thought...or two
http://cabadov.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/cbadov
A Mom Influencer at Everythingmom.com


Thanks for guest posting today, Carrie Anne. I have already added this book to my Amazon wish list!