In the mad scramble to get here and settle in, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to read. Instead of sharing a not-completely-formed-and-likely-to-change opinion of my BIP (book in progress), I think I’ll ask and answer a question readers often ask of one another.

What book made you a reader? Yes, I’m asking you.

I wasn’t a reader as a kid. Not really. It’s not that I disliked reading or that I wasn’t a good reader; it was more that I wasn’t especially good at sitting still, and I liked other things better, like riding bikes, building forts in the woods, and going to summer camp.

Also, there weren’t the endless shelves of kids’ books to choose from. I wasn’t into Nancy Drew or even the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. There was, however, one book/series I liked a lot.

ramona-the-pestI wanted to read Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books. These were the first books I genuinely related to.

I was a little sister just like Ramona. My big sister was a lot like Beezus; she was bossy, and when she chose to read instead of play, she was boring. She called me a pest, too. And she was wrong, just like Beezus.

ramona-the-braveI read Ramona the Pest at an appropriate age, whatever that was, but I was a little old for Ramona the Brave when it came out. I read it anyway.

I also read Ribsy, Beezus and Ramona, and Henry Huggins books, but Ramona was my gal.

Your turn. What book(s) made you a reader?