I have always loved to read. It is probably one of the most defining facts about myself. My grandmother, Syble Johnston, aka Granny, kept me everyday while my parents were at work until I was old enough to start preschool. Oh sure, I loved to watch Nick Jr. and reruns of Flipper and Lassie from the 1950s, but I also loved her set of Encyclopedias. I do not remember if they were an adult or children's set. I do remember that they had an orange cover. We would flip through them, and I learned the names of all the different kinds of animals and learned out to differentiate between alligators and crocodiles. There was a picture of a porcupine that I especially disliked, and so Mom and Granny chose him to be the "villain" that stole my bottle, or bot-bot, as I liked to call it. I was especially fascinated by the pictures of volcanoes and tornadoes, and one thing I have always wanted to see before is an actual tornado, from a safe distance of course! Gran and I would read all day long, and at night, if Mom and Dad were not reading to me, I would have Dad make up wild stories for me, which ended up being pretty colorful, if you can imagine!
When I was at the Russell Afternoon program, we had book reading contests and whoever read the most books a semester would get a trophy and a prize. Of course, I won almost every year, and Mack Jackson always said it was because my other grandmother, Margaret Shaffer, was the director. This was not true. I would speed read the night before our sheet had to be turned in if I was not comfortable that I would win by a big margin!
All of my favorite teachers through grade school were my English and Reading teachers, and if there was a teacher who read to us from a novel after lunch then she was especially in my good graces. One of those lunch books that really sticks out is Hatchet. I would also always excitedly point out the fact that it was one I had already read if that was the case. I was also considered rude on a regular basis by my parents if I had a friend over to play and I proceeded to ignore her to finish a really good book I was in the middle of. If I was ever bored I would sit down in the afternoons and pretend to "write" my own book, although I never would finish it. I even had a real Baby Name book that I would flip through to use for names of my characters!
It really is no surprise that I ended up being an English major in college, although I realize that it does not serve a specific career purpose. I had always been told to major in something I would enjoy, which I did. Your childhood really does determine what path you take, as do those early interests and hobbies. I get a true and absolute joy out of reading and have obtained so many life lessons from books that I would not necessarily have from my every day life. I don't really believe in stock piling a bunch of books, although I have been known to reread favorites. I love to pass them along to friends, for a book is meant to be read, not to gather dust on a shelf. I do, however, hope to have a small library in my dream house one day, complete with a ladder that slides around the room.
Every child should be read to everyday and it may be the most important thing that a parent can do for them. Here are a few of my favorite books from when I was a kid, listed in no particular order:
1. The Boxcar Children series
2. The Saddle Club series
3. The Baby-Sitters Club series
4. Nancy Drew
5. Eric Carl books
6. Amelia Bedelia
7. Where the Red Fern Grows
8. Old Yeller
9. Island of the Blue Dolphins
10. Curious George
11. Danielle Steel (I would pick up Mom's, even though I was probably a bit too young for them!)
12. Dr. Seuss books
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