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.
I 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.
I 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?
Categories: Reading
Honestly, I have no memory of *before* being a reader, so I don’t have any list of books that turned me into one.
Nancy Drew ~~~~~
Unlike you, I was a reader at a very young age. I could read at 4. I’m pretty sure that’s down to Sesame Street. I read everything–books, cereal boxes, instruction manuals. I looooooved Encyclopedia Brown.
You may not believe me, but “ditto.” I was a “Ramona” too. I have been looking to start a Ramona collection for JT, but not sure she would get the full effect as she is an only child.
Shelly, I have one book I associate with you because I recall you telling me how much you liked it: Harriet the Spy. Your enthusiasm for it impressed me. I always felt like a piker when you talked about books because I wasn’t the reader you were.
Bev, my sister was a Nancy Drew fan. I tried to read the Bobbsey Twins, but mystery wasn’t my thing.
Anna, I liked Encyclopedia Brown, too. Were you able to figure out the clues before you read the answers in the back? Only rarely was I able to do that. I had no patience or will power; if I didn’t know immediately, I looked it up.
Beck, I can believe it. You occasionally show your Little Sister streak. You’re just much better at turning it off than I am.
It was a series of books that made me a reader (in English)- The Fairy Books by Andrew Lang – each had a different colour like red, blue, yellow, turquoise – I borrowed them from the library and read them all. LOVED them! Not always happy endings, some stories that have stayed with me forever…
I began reading the Bobbsey Twins’ books when I was about 7 I think, but I too was a reader at an early age. I remember the Golden Books, reading things like The Saggy Baggy Elephant. I’ve continued to read a lot!
My mother read Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories to me and I couldn’t wait to learn to read them myself. I read them so many times, I knew them by heart. I also read Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books and loved them.