It is exactly a week ago today that we announced The Books That Made Us, and in that time we have had a flood of new subscribers, pitches, and hundreds and hundreds of book recommendations!
I was a bit unsure about the level of interest there would be in a community-driven project like this, so it’s been incredibly gratifying to see so much excitement and so many kind words said in support.
Now, we have a few writers currently working on some posts as we speak. However, we will need many, many more to maintain a regular publishing schedule. So, if you have a book in mind that you’d like to write about, please don’t hesitate to pitch! Everything you need to know about the process can be found here.
Regarding the schedule, my hope is to publish a new guest post every Thursday. Seven days was too tight a turnaround to ask writers to produce something on top of their other commitments, so I don’t have a post for you today. I’m hoping we will have something ready for next week, but we will have to see!
In the meantime, I thought we could kick things off with a fun discussion thread. So please tell me…
What was the book that made you fall in love with reading as a child?
The Phantom Tollboth had the most profound impact on me, but I did also adore the Chronicles of Narnia and the Boxcar Children. I was drawn to the melancholy early. Smart and resourceful children figuring out life 😊
The Chronicles of Narnia keep coming up in this thread! Obviously touched a lot of people, perhaps we all wanted to escape into a magical world at the back of our own cupboards
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, without doubt. I still remember taking my little paperback copy everywhere I went — just reading a sentence or paragraph while in the back seat of my mom’s car or walking through the grocery store brought me such joy.
Especially as a gay boy, reading a story that showed the power of transformation and acceptance was so powerful. The siblings endured a lifeless reality, but on a different, fantastical plane they could be welcomed and cherished for who they are. This book alerted me to all the literal and metaphorical doors ready to be opened, just waiting for me to turn their handles and step into a more beautiful world.
Not the most usual, but the book that made me fall in love with reading as a child was the myths and legends of Ancient Greece, retold in normal prose (no children's book). The book was pretty old-fashioned, thick, yellowish, poor photos of various statues in various museums -- totally boring, the pictures. But the stories, I found them so captivating, that I helped my elder sister get a great mark at school on the topic of ancient Greek myths, without having to read them herself. All she did was ask me "so tell me, you're the one reading that book over and over, where did Ulysses go after she got free from Circe?", or "who was Medeea?" I must have been 7 or 8.
Ah I love that! My Mum used to read to me from an old book of Greek myths called ‘Heroes’ that I think originally belonged to my Grandmother as a child - think we must still have it somewhere. The stories of Perseus and Hercules and the drawings that went with them totally captured me as a child!
My earliest memory of reading a book on my own is with Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. I think I was about 8 and I can picture where I was when I read the last pages and was overwhelmed with emotion.
Narnia Narnia Narnia. The Secret Garden. The Wind in the Willows. The Baby-Sitters' Club. (I am not too proud to love it to this day.) Misty of Chincoteague. A trippy picture book called "Thirteen" that I took out of the library almost every week. Tailchaser's Song. A Wrinkle in Time. Back to Narnia.
I was 8 years old when Eragon was published. I grew up in Montana and so did Christopher Paolini. He did a tour of Montana schools to promote it. I got to meet this high schooler who was a real life author... from Montana! That experience and that book were so inspirational for me as a kid. Been a fantasy fan ever since!
Oddly, the key childhood book I recall now as reading over and over was My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It has little to no bearing on my reading or writing today, but it was perhaps the first book that enthralled me cover to cover.
It’s “The Violinist By the Window” by Otto Schlolderer. I used it for an article a few months back and came to like it as something romantic, descriptive, and hilarious.
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and a book about dinosaurs got me hooked on reading. I ordered both of these in kindergarten from a book order. My mom read them to me over and over again because I couldn't read at that time. I learned how to read from those books and discovered the magic places story and knowledge could take me.
I’ve only seen the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are. Oh my god is that not heartbreakingly sad. But beautiful too. How does the movie compare to the books?
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren was my fave. The willfull eldest in a chaotic, alcoholic household, I aspired to that pigtailed girl's brazen independence, fantasized about living in my Villa Villakula, free of crazy adults, scrubbing the floors with brushes on my feet, being a thingfinder, out on the streets, transforming junk into treasure. Unfortunately, I had to find my own escape from reality, and that led me down a darker path than that of Pippi. But I survived and am transforming my trauma into a coming of age memoir of music, marriage and escape.
Grew up surrounded by alcoholism. Went down some dark road’s myself. And here to say.. we’ll some days, just that! Still here. Still in the game. Older and ( allegedly) a little wiser. I wish you well!
It’s hard to single out one...the Narnia series, The Good Master, The Railway Children, the Wind in the Willows, the Jungle Book ...and so many more. But I think that Swallows and Amazons were directly responsible for my childhood fantasy of sailing away. I called myself Captain Bagheera (after the panther in the Jungle Book) and though I didn’t have a sailboat, I happily paddled a small canoe around the edges of Lake Morey (Vermont) desperately hoping to discover an island of my own, and dreaming of adventures.
As I read everyone's wonderful comments I am showing my age. Many of the books mentioned are favorites of mine that I read to my children and grandchildren. They have become their favorites as well. Wonderful to see that joy passed on.
Grimm's Faire Tales written by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. My parents read them to myself and my sister. The lessons, values and morals were clearly formative in my life.
Watership Down captivated me as a child. I was pulled into a world of intrigue, danger, camaraderie, community and personalities so rich I didn’t want it to end. I remember being bereft when I read the last page - that I was leaving behind a group of friends. I couldn’t read another book for a few weeks because it felt like a betrayal; that nothing else could compare. The complex emotions of a 10-year-old...
Heidi by Johanna Spyri. I think I first read Heidi when I was about six or seven years old. There was a copy in our classroom that I would hide under my desk so I could continue reading at recess. As an Asian-Australian kid growing up in Sydney, the Swiss countryside was about as far from my world as possible. I found immense comfort in the idea of a safe, straw-filled loft and there’s a description of goats cheese and bread toasted over an open fireplace that has stuck with me for decades. I re-read it every few years and what I learn from the story (and about myself) changes every time.
I have no idea what the name was but it was the first book I got of the library by myself (school field trip to the public library and we all got cards!). I read it aloud to my mom and then to myself over and over. Pretty sure it featured a dog.
Oh I couldn’t possibility pin it down to one; my parents read to us as children, and I was a voracious reader since the moment I learned how. (I read much less as an adult honestly.)
But I would say The Magic Tree House series probably had the most impact on me in elementary. That, and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I already loved to read, but this book was the first that I felt change my outlook on the world. The link he established between empathy and overcoming was like a secret i thought that only I knew because I had gotten for myself, rather than be taught it from another! 10/10 recommend.
I remember very clearly my third-grade teacher (so I was 8 years old?) and the first books I read myself- The Good Master by Kate Seredy (although I read it in the late 1950's, it was written in 1936) and Rudyard Kipling's Rikki Tikki Tavi, 1894. Both books introduced me to far away worlds and the characters I would meet there. Next, would come an introduction to Mark Twain's Tom Huck and Becky as our 4th-grade teacher read aloud to us while we sat at our desks and ate paper bag lunches of sandwiches. I still love to eat and read.
As a very young child the books by Richard Scarry fascinated me. The connection Scarry made between words and images set me on the course of reading, especially reading books with both words and pictures in them. Like Edward Gorey and Shel Silverstein. Later I enjoyed books that had only words... or books that had only images. But Richard Scarry unlocked the world of reading for me.
For me, it was Alice in Wonderland. I'd only really been exposed to Edith Blyton and fairy tales before that. I don't think I need to explain why Alice stayed with me after that change in literary exposure. Alice has single-handedly influenced all my art and writing since then.
War and Peace, and Anna Karenina, which I started at age 6 ,and because of a well disciplined reading regimen, I finished at age 34.
Truthfully, a simple little primer about some children called Dick, Jane, and Sally, and a wonderful teacher helped me discover the connection between squiggly lines on paper and the stories they told. It happened very quickly, maybe the first week of grade 1. For mini me, it was like a miracle. That was back in the land before time, before kindergartens, pre-schools, and post-partum academies.
For me, it was the final volume of the Spiderwick Chronicles. I hadn’t read the rest, hadn’t even known it was part of a series, but I stumbled upon this one in a mall and the description captivated me. I finished it that day and cried my eyes out.
I'm glad for this clarification - that this book dates back to childhood. It changes what I was thinking of proposing, which is just fine. Question: can it be a picture book? (please say yes)
Hi Julie, I meant for this question about a childhood book to be just for this discussion thread, rather than for a founding book post! (Though you are welcome to choose a children’s book for a founding book if it fits the criteria for you!)
Ben Mikaelsen's 'Touching Spirit Bear' and Gary Paulsen's 'Hatchet' were probably two of the most instrumental books for me. I was deeply fascinated with the concept of surviving in the wilderness at a young age and both of these books I remember reading multiple times.
Jules Verne-- Journey to the Center of the Earth was another that caught my attention. The fact that the movie version came out about the same time probably spurred my interest.
My black hole book (as I call it lol) was A Wrinkle In Time. I identified with each character, in particularly Calvin. As a high-fantasy/sci-fi reader it captured me in a unique growing pain in my preteens, growing out of the smaller children’s books and finding my true love genre. The epic travel sequenced with the gorgeous and ferocious verbiage that was kind for children enchanted me, and still does.
Definitely The Call of the Wild. I grew up an active reader, but it was that book that carried me away into adventure in a harsh landscape, and which I have never forgot.
I loved the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series in second grade. Later, my favorite was Snow Treasure, about Norwegian children helping transport Norway’s gold during World
War II. I’ve been hooked on historical fiction and history ever since!
The Enormous Turnip. It was the first book I read that wasn't a learning to read book from school and I finally felt like I could actually read! It was also the first time going to the library. I didn't realise there were so many books because we didn't have books at home much. My parents didn't read anything except newspapares and magazines.
The story itself captured my imagination. I couldn't have articulated it then but I was mesmerised by the power of a bunch of people working together for the good of everyone. A community if you like. I read it over and over again. It was renewed a couple of times until we had to take it back. Sadly visits to the library were few and far between and I kind of forgot about reading apart from what I had to read at school until my teens.
Ah what a lovely story. Also, what a great name for a children’s book! I used to go with my Mum to the library every week. I was allowed to borrow as many books as I wanted but only 1 VHS. Used to come back with an armful of books and always the same VHS: the Batman cartoon 😂
I just devoured Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books and actually volunteered as a ‘junior librarian’ so I could borrow them one after another .. and then came the Donna Parker series and any book around that was about horses … in Australia that was The Silver Brumby and Seven Little Australians, Black Beauty.
The famous 5 books were awesome! Loved those. Actually read my old Grandmother’s copies that she had as a child. Looking forward to giving them to my children one day
I always loved reading even as a child, but Momo by Michael Ende and The little Prince from Antoine De Saint-Exupéry will always have a special place in my heart
Enid Blyton’s “The Boy Next Door” gave me my love of a mystery. The Diary of Anne Frank, opened my eyes to an evil history and for pure unadulterated joy... another Blyton ,”The Magic Faraway Tree”
There are not enough hours in a day for the amount of reading I love to do!
Books I love to read to children include “The Tiger who came to Tea” “ Where the Wild things are” andanything by Roald Dahl but most especially “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “The BFG”
The Magic Faraway Tree is amazing! I read a lot of Blyton books that had belonged to my grandmother when she was a child, slightly falling apart. Have been meaning to take one of them to get valued as we think it might be a first edition. Not sure it would be worth much as my Mum drew all over the inside cover page when she was a little girl 🙈
I discovered the magical delight of turning pages - both forward and back - through Richard Scarry. His charming panoramas of pig firemen and counting to ten with giant whales and muddy cats with splayed paws were all as foundational to the life of my imagination and my understanding of the world around me as Tolstoy would be further along.
Someone else in this thread mentioned Richard Scarry - I’d not heard of him before. Also share the love for Tolstoy. Reading War and Peace blew my mind at 18
The Lord of the Rings trilogy had me hooked on bus rides rides to and from middle school in Sweden. The map on the inside cover and the wonderful imagery in J.R.R Tolkien used sparked my imagination.
Great question! Yeah now that I think about it, his writing was ground breaking. It blows my mind how he created such vast worlds and characters that he kicked off the fantasy genre. 👍🏽
I remember reading dozens of Bernstein Bears books one summer and the flow never stopped. The journey that opened worlds of imagination for me like no other, though, was the Redwall Series.
I remember reading so many books published by the American Girl company. Not just the stories of Addy, but also a book on decor projects and the magazine. My weird way of folding socks came from that decor book, and I think it's the reason why I like doing DIY home projects so much.
Please explain the weird way of folding socks! It’s funny how little habits like that can come from the books we read. I stopped folding pages as dog ear bookmarks after I read a character in a book said it was an abomination 😂
It wasn't so much folding as it was rolling them to look like cinnamon buns? I still roll them , but now I turn the outer sock in to turn it into a little pouch of some kind. Best solution to no longer losing my socks!
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. I returned to reading and loving comics in graduate school, and ended up writing a chapter of my dissertation on the medium. I love the page layouts and how they can be played with to add meaning to a story, the way the form embodies the content, the way the two form a complete whole so clearly (in a way that is much more hidden in say a traditional novel). I could go on, but yeah, this is the one. Would love to write on Little Nemo, first comics feelings, and some about the medium, if you’ll have me! Sending in my pitch now 😀
Yes please do! I’m also a big comics fan. Was obsessed with Batman as a kid and for some reason I decided to collect Simpsons comics. 9 year old me was convinced they were gonna be worth millions one day!
B is for Betsy. Yes, it's a very old book, and it was very old when my 2nd grade school librarian recommended it to me. It was the first "big book" I'd ever read, and I've been hooked ever since. Perhaps that's why my glasses are now so thick? :)
The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It had it all: running away from home, night in a museum, a crazy old bat with money, and a mystery culminating in a surprise inheritance. That felt like the first book I read where I felt transported and scared and thrilled and like a grown up reader.
I had to ask my mom on this one, since I honestly can’t remember a time when I wasn’t reading! She reminded me of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which played on my love of music and rhythm. To this day, I enjoy the way that excellent writing feels and sounds delightful in my mind, the ideas flowing like a satisfying and exciting piece of music. Had never made that connection before.
It is well worth a 5 minute read the next time you are in a bookstore, if for no other reason than the pure joy of saying "skit skat skoodle doot, flip flop flee, everybody running to the top of the coconut tree!"
The Phantom Tollboth had the most profound impact on me, but I did also adore the Chronicles of Narnia and the Boxcar Children. I was drawn to the melancholy early. Smart and resourceful children figuring out life 😊
The Chronicles of Narnia keep coming up in this thread! Obviously touched a lot of people, perhaps we all wanted to escape into a magical world at the back of our own cupboards
I must also say that pouring over the Encyclopedia Brittanica was a joyful pastime.
Well that’s uncanny; literally all those had a big impact on me too!
Magical. I still amusingly quote "why do today what you can putoff til tmw?" though living that mindset is still an aspiration.
I came here to say The Phantom Tollbooth. Such an extraordinary book. ☺️
I have come to owe a lot of my grammatical and linguistic humor to The Phantom Tollbooth, honestly.
Oh I didn't read these until I had my second bunch of children and found the whole set at a jumble sale! Loved them!
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, without doubt. I still remember taking my little paperback copy everywhere I went — just reading a sentence or paragraph while in the back seat of my mom’s car or walking through the grocery store brought me such joy.
Especially as a gay boy, reading a story that showed the power of transformation and acceptance was so powerful. The siblings endured a lifeless reality, but on a different, fantastical plane they could be welcomed and cherished for who they are. This book alerted me to all the literal and metaphorical doors ready to be opened, just waiting for me to turn their handles and step into a more beautiful world.
Michael! You should really write this up into a full essay. Would love to feature that here.
I'd love that! (What a great excuse to reconnect with the book again.) Will submit info through the pitching form.
Not the most usual, but the book that made me fall in love with reading as a child was the myths and legends of Ancient Greece, retold in normal prose (no children's book). The book was pretty old-fashioned, thick, yellowish, poor photos of various statues in various museums -- totally boring, the pictures. But the stories, I found them so captivating, that I helped my elder sister get a great mark at school on the topic of ancient Greek myths, without having to read them herself. All she did was ask me "so tell me, you're the one reading that book over and over, where did Ulysses go after she got free from Circe?", or "who was Medeea?" I must have been 7 or 8.
Ah I love that! My Mum used to read to me from an old book of Greek myths called ‘Heroes’ that I think originally belonged to my Grandmother as a child - think we must still have it somewhere. The stories of Perseus and Hercules and the drawings that went with them totally captured me as a child!
glad it plucked a string...
The Wind in the Willows was the first book that completely overwhelmed me. My mother had a big illustrated edition that I must've read a dozen times.
Wind in the Willows is a great choice. Think it’s my Dad’s favourite book actually
It's a good one!
I'm very excited to show it to my son when he can read.
My earliest memory of reading a book on my own is with Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. I think I was about 8 and I can picture where I was when I read the last pages and was overwhelmed with emotion.
Ah yes! Think that was the first book I ever cried while reading
Narnia Narnia Narnia. The Secret Garden. The Wind in the Willows. The Baby-Sitters' Club. (I am not too proud to love it to this day.) Misty of Chincoteague. A trippy picture book called "Thirteen" that I took out of the library almost every week. Tailchaser's Song. A Wrinkle in Time. Back to Narnia.
A lot of people have mentioned Narnia in this thread. C. S. Lewis knew what he was doing
I was 8 years old when Eragon was published. I grew up in Montana and so did Christopher Paolini. He did a tour of Montana schools to promote it. I got to meet this high schooler who was a real life author... from Montana! That experience and that book were so inspirational for me as a kid. Been a fantasy fan ever since!
Ah those books were awesome! Loved the character of Murtagh. Can’t believe how badly they fluffed that movie!
I can relate! Isn’t it exciting that there’s a new instalment coming soon??
Absolutely!
Oddly, the key childhood book I recall now as reading over and over was My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It has little to no bearing on my reading or writing today, but it was perhaps the first book that enthralled me cover to cover.
This is a bit random but I’ve just noticed your profile picture on here for first time and I love it. What painting is that?
It’s “The Violinist By the Window” by Otto Schlolderer. I used it for an article a few months back and came to like it as something romantic, descriptive, and hilarious.
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and a book about dinosaurs got me hooked on reading. I ordered both of these in kindergarten from a book order. My mom read them to me over and over again because I couldn't read at that time. I learned how to read from those books and discovered the magic places story and knowledge could take me.
I’ve only seen the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are. Oh my god is that not heartbreakingly sad. But beautiful too. How does the movie compare to the books?
I’ve never seen the movie, but is sounds like it has quite a different ending from the picture book.
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren was my fave. The willfull eldest in a chaotic, alcoholic household, I aspired to that pigtailed girl's brazen independence, fantasized about living in my Villa Villakula, free of crazy adults, scrubbing the floors with brushes on my feet, being a thingfinder, out on the streets, transforming junk into treasure. Unfortunately, I had to find my own escape from reality, and that led me down a darker path than that of Pippi. But I survived and am transforming my trauma into a coming of age memoir of music, marriage and escape.
So glad you’ve out the other side, Anne. I’m sure this is no consolation to what you’ve had to go through, but hardship often begets the greatest art.
Believe me, it is huge consolation and motivation. Thanks for what you are doing, here, creating connections.
Grew up surrounded by alcoholism. Went down some dark road’s myself. And here to say.. we’ll some days, just that! Still here. Still in the game. Older and ( allegedly) a little wiser. I wish you well!
Ew, yeah, it's a lifelong journey, Kevin. Reading and writing are sanctuaries. So is community. All best to you on the road, too!
It’s hard to single out one...the Narnia series, The Good Master, The Railway Children, the Wind in the Willows, the Jungle Book ...and so many more. But I think that Swallows and Amazons were directly responsible for my childhood fantasy of sailing away. I called myself Captain Bagheera (after the panther in the Jungle Book) and though I didn’t have a sailboat, I happily paddled a small canoe around the edges of Lake Morey (Vermont) desperately hoping to discover an island of my own, and dreaming of adventures.
That is such a lovely story!
As I read everyone's wonderful comments I am showing my age. Many of the books mentioned are favorites of mine that I read to my children and grandchildren. They have become their favorites as well. Wonderful to see that joy passed on.
Haha not at all, I think your choice is classic regardless of age!
Grimm's Faire Tales written by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. My parents read them to myself and my sister. The lessons, values and morals were clearly formative in my life.
Watership Down captivated me as a child. I was pulled into a world of intrigue, danger, camaraderie, community and personalities so rich I didn’t want it to end. I remember being bereft when I read the last page - that I was leaving behind a group of friends. I couldn’t read another book for a few weeks because it felt like a betrayal; that nothing else could compare. The complex emotions of a 10-year-old...
That’s actually one of my girlfriend’s favourite books too, sounds like you both had very similar experiences reading it
Heidi by Johanna Spyri. I think I first read Heidi when I was about six or seven years old. There was a copy in our classroom that I would hide under my desk so I could continue reading at recess. As an Asian-Australian kid growing up in Sydney, the Swiss countryside was about as far from my world as possible. I found immense comfort in the idea of a safe, straw-filled loft and there’s a description of goats cheese and bread toasted over an open fireplace that has stuck with me for decades. I re-read it every few years and what I learn from the story (and about myself) changes every time.
Ah that’s so heartwarming, Tiana. Thanks for sharing
I have no idea what the name was but it was the first book I got of the library by myself (school field trip to the public library and we all got cards!). I read it aloud to my mom and then to myself over and over. Pretty sure it featured a dog.
I think it’s fair to say a dog got you into reading. Yet another reason to love them
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. I was a scifi boy through and through.
I really need to get around to reading my copy
Oh I couldn’t possibility pin it down to one; my parents read to us as children, and I was a voracious reader since the moment I learned how. (I read much less as an adult honestly.)
But I would say The Magic Tree House series probably had the most impact on me in elementary. That, and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Haha, exactly (re both points)! I also like that beneath the whimsy is a more serious undercurrent, a journey from innocence to experience.
Candid💗
It’s a full of dream land for me when my dad gift me when im in grade 1.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I already loved to read, but this book was the first that I felt change my outlook on the world. The link he established between empathy and overcoming was like a secret i thought that only I knew because I had gotten for myself, rather than be taught it from another! 10/10 recommend.
I actually never got to that myself. Based on your description of it here, seems it lives up to its hype!
I remember very clearly my third-grade teacher (so I was 8 years old?) and the first books I read myself- The Good Master by Kate Seredy (although I read it in the late 1950's, it was written in 1936) and Rudyard Kipling's Rikki Tikki Tavi, 1894. Both books introduced me to far away worlds and the characters I would meet there. Next, would come an introduction to Mark Twain's Tom Huck and Becky as our 4th-grade teacher read aloud to us while we sat at our desks and ate paper bag lunches of sandwiches. I still love to eat and read.
The image of you and your classmates reading books and eating sandwiches out of a brown paper bag is so sweet
I guess the fifties were a little sweeter than now...
Treasure Island. Read *to* me at first...
Excellent choice
As a very young child the books by Richard Scarry fascinated me. The connection Scarry made between words and images set me on the course of reading, especially reading books with both words and pictures in them. Like Edward Gorey and Shel Silverstein. Later I enjoyed books that had only words... or books that had only images. But Richard Scarry unlocked the world of reading for me.
That’s great. I still remember a lot of the picture books my Mum read to me as a child.
For me, it was Alice in Wonderland. I'd only really been exposed to Edith Blyton and fairy tales before that. I don't think I need to explain why Alice stayed with me after that change in literary exposure. Alice has single-handedly influenced all my art and writing since then.
P.S. Love The Bookworm
War and Peace, and Anna Karenina, which I started at age 6 ,and because of a well disciplined reading regimen, I finished at age 34.
Truthfully, a simple little primer about some children called Dick, Jane, and Sally, and a wonderful teacher helped me discover the connection between squiggly lines on paper and the stories they told. It happened very quickly, maybe the first week of grade 1. For mini me, it was like a miracle. That was back in the land before time, before kindergartens, pre-schools, and post-partum academies.
That lyrical almost silly style of Carroll’s is so enchanting, isn’t it? Haha I think the Bookworm is all of us!
For me, it was the final volume of the Spiderwick Chronicles. I hadn’t read the rest, hadn’t even known it was part of a series, but I stumbled upon this one in a mall and the description captivated me. I finished it that day and cried my eyes out.
Did you go back and read the rest?
Nope, never did. I actually forgot about the book until earlier this year. I must still have it somewhere, maybe I should track it down and reread it.
I'm glad for this clarification - that this book dates back to childhood. It changes what I was thinking of proposing, which is just fine. Question: can it be a picture book? (please say yes)
Hi Julie, I meant for this question about a childhood book to be just for this discussion thread, rather than for a founding book post! (Though you are welcome to choose a children’s book for a founding book if it fits the criteria for you!)
Ah! That makes sense. But, hey - now I have two book ideas to choose from. 😊
No problem - and picture books would be allowed!
Ben Mikaelsen's 'Touching Spirit Bear' and Gary Paulsen's 'Hatchet' were probably two of the most instrumental books for me. I was deeply fascinated with the concept of surviving in the wilderness at a young age and both of these books I remember reading multiple times.
Three actually:
Asterix series:
https://asterix.com/en/
Moby Dick:
https://www.amazon.com/Moby-Wordsworth-Classics-Herman-Melville/dp/1853260088/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=moby+dick&qid=1691637801&sr=8-1
Gullivers Travels:
https://www.amazon.com/Gullivers-Travels-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486292738/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=39F3FEVYZVGC7&keywords=gulliver%27s+travels&qid=1691637874&sprefix=gull%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1
Great choices all. I used to love Asterix comics as a kid
Great Expectations.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
I actually don’t know this one
Jules Verne-- Journey to the Center of the Earth was another that caught my attention. The fact that the movie version came out about the same time probably spurred my interest.
I loved that he used such a magnificent part of Iceland as the entryway to the tunnel
My black hole book (as I call it lol) was A Wrinkle In Time. I identified with each character, in particularly Calvin. As a high-fantasy/sci-fi reader it captured me in a unique growing pain in my preteens, growing out of the smaller children’s books and finding my true love genre. The epic travel sequenced with the gorgeous and ferocious verbiage that was kind for children enchanted me, and still does.
Actually have a submission from a writer on this very book! Will be coming out in the coming months
The books that really got me started as a passionate reader were Nancy Drew. I still love mysteries to this day.
Definitely The Call of the Wild. I grew up an active reader, but it was that book that carried me away into adventure in a harsh landscape, and which I have never forgot.
I loved the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series in second grade. Later, my favorite was Snow Treasure, about Norwegian children helping transport Norway’s gold during World
War II. I’ve been hooked on historical fiction and history ever since!
The Enormous Turnip. It was the first book I read that wasn't a learning to read book from school and I finally felt like I could actually read! It was also the first time going to the library. I didn't realise there were so many books because we didn't have books at home much. My parents didn't read anything except newspapares and magazines.
The story itself captured my imagination. I couldn't have articulated it then but I was mesmerised by the power of a bunch of people working together for the good of everyone. A community if you like. I read it over and over again. It was renewed a couple of times until we had to take it back. Sadly visits to the library were few and far between and I kind of forgot about reading apart from what I had to read at school until my teens.
Ah what a lovely story. Also, what a great name for a children’s book! I used to go with my Mum to the library every week. I was allowed to borrow as many books as I wanted but only 1 VHS. Used to come back with an armful of books and always the same VHS: the Batman cartoon 😂
Ha ha.... VHS's came later for me. I will pitch to post here in the next month. I know exactly the book I want to share. :-)
I just devoured Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books and actually volunteered as a ‘junior librarian’ so I could borrow them one after another .. and then came the Donna Parker series and any book around that was about horses … in Australia that was The Silver Brumby and Seven Little Australians, Black Beauty.
The famous 5 books were awesome! Loved those. Actually read my old Grandmother’s copies that she had as a child. Looking forward to giving them to my children one day
Flowers for Algernon was the first book that really stood out and made me actually feel something when I read it.
I cried at the end 😭😭
A Wrinkle in Time. The book is amazing. The recent-ish movie did not do it justice.
Story of the Seagull and the Cat who taught her to fly, Luis Sepúlveda.
I don’t know that but the title sounds awesome
I always loved reading even as a child, but Momo by Michael Ende and The little Prince from Antoine De Saint-Exupéry will always have a special place in my heart
Enid Blyton’s “The Boy Next Door” gave me my love of a mystery. The Diary of Anne Frank, opened my eyes to an evil history and for pure unadulterated joy... another Blyton ,”The Magic Faraway Tree”
There are not enough hours in a day for the amount of reading I love to do!
Books I love to read to children include “The Tiger who came to Tea” “ Where the Wild things are” andanything by Roald Dahl but most especially “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “The BFG”
The Magic Faraway Tree is amazing! I read a lot of Blyton books that had belonged to my grandmother when she was a child, slightly falling apart. Have been meaning to take one of them to get valued as we think it might be a first edition. Not sure it would be worth much as my Mum drew all over the inside cover page when she was a little girl 🙈
I discovered the magical delight of turning pages - both forward and back - through Richard Scarry. His charming panoramas of pig firemen and counting to ten with giant whales and muddy cats with splayed paws were all as foundational to the life of my imagination and my understanding of the world around me as Tolstoy would be further along.
Someone else in this thread mentioned Richard Scarry - I’d not heard of him before. Also share the love for Tolstoy. Reading War and Peace blew my mind at 18
It was the only book I ever read and wept. Without committing a spoiler here, it was the death of someone falling off ahorse.
Worth reading as an adult, do you think?
Sorry, that was confusing. I was referring to war and peace in a second comment.
If you are in a bookstore, I’d head to the children’s section and just look for Richard Scarry. You’ll get a kick out of it.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy had me hooked on bus rides rides to and from middle school in Sweden. The map on the inside cover and the wonderful imagery in J.R.R Tolkien used sparked my imagination.
Do you feel that Tolkien is all the fantasy we’d ever need? Feels like everything world/universe is derivative of the great man
Great question! Yeah now that I think about it, his writing was ground breaking. It blows my mind how he created such vast worlds and characters that he kicked off the fantasy genre. 👍🏽
I remember reading dozens of Bernstein Bears books one summer and the flow never stopped. The journey that opened worlds of imagination for me like no other, though, was the Redwall Series.
I never knew a braver mouse than Martin the Warrior. May he rest in peace 🥺
I remember reading so many books published by the American Girl company. Not just the stories of Addy, but also a book on decor projects and the magazine. My weird way of folding socks came from that decor book, and I think it's the reason why I like doing DIY home projects so much.
Please explain the weird way of folding socks! It’s funny how little habits like that can come from the books we read. I stopped folding pages as dog ear bookmarks after I read a character in a book said it was an abomination 😂
It wasn't so much folding as it was rolling them to look like cinnamon buns? I still roll them , but now I turn the outer sock in to turn it into a little pouch of some kind. Best solution to no longer losing my socks!
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. I returned to reading and loving comics in graduate school, and ended up writing a chapter of my dissertation on the medium. I love the page layouts and how they can be played with to add meaning to a story, the way the form embodies the content, the way the two form a complete whole so clearly (in a way that is much more hidden in say a traditional novel). I could go on, but yeah, this is the one. Would love to write on Little Nemo, first comics feelings, and some about the medium, if you’ll have me! Sending in my pitch now 😀
Yes please do! I’m also a big comics fan. Was obsessed with Batman as a kid and for some reason I decided to collect Simpsons comics. 9 year old me was convinced they were gonna be worth millions one day!
And I can’t believe they ARENT!
B is for Betsy. Yes, it's a very old book, and it was very old when my 2nd grade school librarian recommended it to me. It was the first "big book" I'd ever read, and I've been hooked ever since. Perhaps that's why my glasses are now so thick? :)
Haha worth it though I’m sure!
The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It had it all: running away from home, night in a museum, a crazy old bat with money, and a mystery culminating in a surprise inheritance. That felt like the first book I read where I felt transported and scared and thrilled and like a grown up reader.
I don’t know that one but it sounds great. Do you think all of us secretly want to spend a night at a museum?
Oh, absolutely. Surely even MET gala attendees walk away with this as an unfulfilled wish for their evening
I had to ask my mom on this one, since I honestly can’t remember a time when I wasn’t reading! She reminded me of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which played on my love of music and rhythm. To this day, I enjoy the way that excellent writing feels and sounds delightful in my mind, the ideas flowing like a satisfying and exciting piece of music. Had never made that connection before.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom sounds great. Just fun to say
It is well worth a 5 minute read the next time you are in a bookstore, if for no other reason than the pure joy of saying "skit skat skoodle doot, flip flop flee, everybody running to the top of the coconut tree!"
The never ending story from Michel Ende definitely! An old book with page browned by time found in my parents collection.
Ah I only ever saw the movie of that and the big white flying dog gave me nightmares! 🙈