Day Eleven – My Favorite Childhood Book

I have been a book lover for as long as I can remember.  Lately, I haven’t been reading as much as I would like to.  Not for lack of time, I can make plenty of that.  I’m in a reading slump and when I come out of it, there is a good chance I will read several books in a week.  I go through cycles like that.  Sometimes I read every day, sometimes, I don’t.  My mom told me that even as a baby, my dad read to me almost every night.  Since I can’t seem to come up with one “best” anything for any of these posts, you will have to bear with me as I break my favorite childhood book into life stages.

The first stage, being a toddler. Now you might think that being named after a character from the book “Peter Pan”  which by the way was originally titled, “Peter Pan and Wendy”, that it would be my favorite.  Sure I loved Peter’s adventures in Neverland but, as soon as I saw this topic, the first book that came to my mind was, “The Cinnamon Bear” by Alice Hanson and illustrated by George Bakacs.  It was part of the Tell-a-Tale series of books.  The Cinnamon Bear was on the cover, and he was “fuzzy-wuzzy”.  It tells the story of a small bear who runs away from the circus to have some fun and cools off in the river.  Of course, the circus people find him and take him back for the show.  I’m not sure, but I think this book may even have been a hand-me-down from my aunts, Pam and Jill.

Books were a big deal at our house.  We often received them as gifts, and I couldn’t wait for the book fair when I got to school age.  I don’t remember a time I didn’t have a library card.  Saturday trips to the library, checking out as many books as I could carry was something I looked forward to. It wasn’t just library books.  We had bookcases and bookshelves in our house, so they were always within reach.

Most nights after dinner, my dad would lie on the floor and work on the crossword puzzle that was in the newspaper or read his National Geographic.  As a child, I often joined him, or sometimes laid on his back and looked over his shoulder so I could “read” the Nat Geo too.

After “The Cinnamon Bear”, I have great memories of reading Dr. Seuss’s books.  I think we belonged to a book club and received a book regularly.  Plus I had a few hand-me-downs from Pam and Jill.  I’m going to call the next stage of my reading life, the early elementary years.  With all the reading at home, I was able to read when I started kindergarten.  Now while the Dr. Seuss books were loved as were the Little Golden Books like “Pokey Little Puppy” and “The Little Red Hen”, my favorite book which is really a set of books, was “Childcraft – The How and Why Library”.  The series consisted of 15 volumes with each volume focusing on a specific topic.  The edition we had included the following titles:  Poems and Rhymes, Stories and Fables, Children Everywhere, World and Space, About Animals, How Things Work, How We Get Things, What People Do, Holidays and Customs, Places to Know, Make and Do, Look and Learn, Look Again, About Me, Guide for Parents.  My favorites were: Poems and Rhymes, Children Everywhere, World and Space, and Places to Know.  I think I read those books cover to cover several times throughout the years.

Okay, on to the pre-teen/teen years.  There was E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web”, Judy Blume books, and “Dr. Doolittle”, but I was most captivated by Carolyn Keene’s “Nancy Drew” series.  I had the whole set, and my brother had the “Hardy Boys” series which I also read.   I even downloaded “Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Old Clock” to my Kindle a couple of years ago.  I think every young girl who read these books always wanted to solve a mystery of their own.

No one book stands out in my high school years.  What does stand out is the way our English classes were designed.  During my junior/senior year, we had English mini-courses.  We could choose the courses that we wanted.  My favorites were Poetry Reading, Novel Reading, Comic Books, and Science Fiction.  Needless to say, I read a lot during that time.  I even was a co-editor for the school’s literary magazine, the Cauldron which was founded by Earl Derr Biggers who went on to create the Charlie Chan character of books and movies.

I can’t wrap this up without mentioning “Le Petit Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.  It wasn’t a childhood favorite, but as an adult, even though it is considered a children’s book, it is one of my favorites.  So much so, that if I happen across it during my travels, I buy it in that language. One of my journals is also based on it.

I’ve enjoyed writing this blog so much, that I am thinking about re-reading a Nancy Drew Book, “Charlotte’s Web”, and “Le Petit Prince” since they are all on my Kindle.

I will leave you with words of wisdom from Dr. Seuss, “You can find magic wherever you look.  Sit back and relax, all you need is a book.”