Remembering the Rabbit Hole
One of the greatest tragedies in my life is when for some reason, my parents cleaned house when I left for college. Along with the cleansing went all my books from first grade onwards to the half-price bookstore. Comic books, tattered and dog-eared pages of favorites -- companions on rainy afternoons huddled under a blanket (and Blue Bell ice-cream, making me the fattest kid is the sixth grade).. but man, I keep losing stuff like this.. books, photos..
I'm going to own all those books again, but my memory is spotty. But each time I see a book that I remember, I'm grabbing it. Today, I discovered Tomie dePaola all over again! Remember Strega Nona? She rocks! And also Trina Hart Hyman ( I used to ogle all her illustrations of near naked enchantresses).
:My list (a selection)
Where the Wild Things are, Alexander the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, James and the Giant Peach, My Side of the Mountain, Hatchet, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Phantom Tollbooth, My Bedtime Book of Two-Minutes Stories, Ramona Quimby (Age 8), Mouse and the Motorcycle, Henry and the Paper Route, Encyclopedia Brown (series), Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (series), Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, Bears in the Night (Berenstain Bears), Clifford the Small Red Puppy, The Voyage of Babar, A Bear Called Paddington, Curious George Takes a Job, Saint George and the Dragon, Save Queen of Sheba, Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte's Web, The Secret Garden, How to Eat Fried Worms, There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, Sideway Stories from Wayside School, Centaur Aisle, The Dark is Rising series, The Prydain Chronicles, The Chronicles of Narnia, Choose Your Own Adventure - Outlaws of Sherwood Forest and the Secret of the Ninja, Indian in the Cupboard, The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Corduroy, Bridge to Terabithia, The Polar Express, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wizard of Oz, A Wizard of Earthsea, Johnny Tremain, The Three Investigators...
So many more! I can talk about books I read as a kid for days!
It made my stomach hurt to think about all of those books being thrown out! I think I've also read every book on your list - many to my kids.
My very favorite book as a child was Where the Wild Things Are. I was constantly checking that book out from the library and then it was the first book I bought when I had a baby.
When I was about 10 or 11, it was A Wrinkle in Time which I'm reading with my daughter now. And as an older adult, anything Ray Bradbury.
Posted by: laura | March 21, 2007 at 03:00 PM
Whoops- older adolescent, that is. (I'm hopefully not an older adult yet.)
Posted by: laura | March 21, 2007 at 03:01 PM