chapter books

As this is a blog devoted (but not strictly devoted) to my favourite past times, reading and wine-ing, a good starting point under the former category would be where did my love of reading start.   I have been 'blessed' with an excellent long-term memory.  I say 'blessed' because while it is excellent that I can remember many things from early ages, I tend to hold on to some of the bad memories, rather than ignore them.  So yes, good and bad there.


Anyhow, like most avid readers I was read to as a child.  Reading was something that was routine and comforting and gave me a chance to imagine scenes from what was being read inside my head.  I was a kid with an active imagination and I was a kid who took great care of my books.  I  didn't like them scattered or tossed aside, a bookmark needed to be used rather than dog earring a page as I got older, and I wasn't a 'sharer'.  Sharing a book meant saying goodbye to it at the least and at it's best possibly coming back not in the condition it was given in.  So, yah - no sharing.  


The first book I remember falling in love with was "The Boxcar Children" by Gertrude Chandler Warner.  My grade 1 teacher, Mrs Lobay read our class a chapter each afternoon, after which I spent the next few hours day dreaming about myself living in a boxcar with my siblings.  I could not wait each day at school  for story time after lunch.  When The Boxcar Children came to an end we moved on to other chapter books, none of which were as dear to my heart as that book.  By then I was reading on my own and library time was my favourite time of the day.   This is where my love of reading began, being excited about books.  I'm still excited about books to this day.  What makes a 'reader' different from a 'non-reader'?


I still get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I think about kids books like Dandelion (oh, it rains and your mane becomes curly!) and Corduroy (with your missing button!) and Madeline (perhaps where my love of Paris began?)


(even though I have yet to earn any readers to this blog) What books do you remember getting you started on the literary journey?


j