Too Many Childhood Favorites!

As a kid, I had so many favorite books it's hard to pin down my FAVORITE favorites. I read all of the Happy Hollisters mysteries. These are no longer in print, unfortunately, but can be found online or occasionally in thrift shops. In the humor category, I loved Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. My Auntie Mona read these books to my sisters and me. I read them to my children. Hilarious and highly entertaining.

I read Henry Huggins and all of Beverly Cleary's books. Loved 'em all. I read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and The Prince and the Pauper. Again, humorous and wonderful, all. Mark Twain was America's great humourist.

Of course, I learned about life right along with Anne of Green Gables and Heidi and Ellen Tibbits and Laura Ingalls Wilder and all of the other storybook girls as we grew up together.

My favorite genre, I suppose, was animal stories. Whenever I was sick (which was quite frequently), my mother would get me a stack of books at the library to while away the hours I spent in bed. She would pretty much wipe out the dog stories section, then the horse stories, then, well, deer? I loved The Yearling. I read The Black Stallion series (Walter Farley) and of course, Lassie Come Home, Big Red, Tawney, and every other great story of man's best friend.

In high school I dabbled in science fiction and was soon mesmerized. I can't remember any of the titles I read now, but later on I read and loved Meredith Ann Pierce's DarkAngel trilogy. Excellent! I then read The Woman Who Loved Reindeer, also by Pierce, also wonderful. She has written a couple of other titles since way back then, so I hope to find them soon. Oh, Phillip Pullman's trilogy beginning with The Golden Compass is a good fantasy too. I loved the idea of daemons. (You'll have to read it to find out more.)

The point of all this is that books can be an integral part of one's life, especially when reading for sheer pleasure begins early. I can't guarantee that every child can be convinced to be the reader I was (and am). In fact not all of my chidren are avid readers (although believe me, I tried!!!), but oh what a life is the reading life. What would I do without books?

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