Today’s guest blog is by Anna.
My house is around the corner from a library. The same library I went to when I was a kid; the library where I got my first library card. My first card was heavy, blue-grey paper and had the old “bars” logo for the Minneapolis Library on it. It also had my six-year-old handwriting on it spelling out my full name, hyphenated first name and all. I can remember bringing that precious piece of paper into the library where I would hand it and a stack of books to the librarian where she would press a button on a machine that, with a clunk and a buzz, took a picture of the book and my card, allowing me to take the books home. The red-headed librarian that was there when I was a kid still works there. The kids’ books are still to the left as you come in, and the “grown-up” books to the right. I sometimes wander into the stacks of children’s non-fiction and sniff the loamy aroma of dust-jacketed books and the air of my youth (don’t tell the red headed librarian, she might tell my mom).
I have loved books and reading as long as I can remember, and have no clear memories of not being able read. I remember my father reading chapter books to me at night and I remember reading Dr. Seuss to myself. I remember yelling downstairs when it was time for “lights out” that I was in the middle of a chapter and couldn’t I finish it, then getting five more minutes to read and reading fast enough to go into another chapter so I could repeat the process until my mother’s patience for the game wore out.
Over the past couple of years I have been watching through different eyes the process that leads to independent reading. It is a profound thing to watch, especially when you have forgotten how it was that you learned. First there is learning letter shapes and sounds and putting those together so you recognize the sound for each shape. Next comes putting those shapes and sounds in combinations that make new sounds. Eventually you get to sentences and books. It is amazing all the abstract things we learn that all come together to allow us to recognize a bunch of straight and curvy lines as words we understand.
Earlier this spring Daughter got her own library card, with her own full name spelled out in six-year-old handwriting. She was thrilled. It has its own purple card case and she loves that she can scan it under the bar code reader, scan her books, and tap the screen to get her receipt on her own (technology has advanced a bit since I got my first card). Because we are just around the corner there is a weekly request, easily fulfilled, to go and read at the library. I think Daughter loves the smell of all the books, and the thrill of understanding them, as much as I do. And what better motivation to keep reading than your own shiny library card and the ability to use it to discover new worlds?
What were your favorite books when you were a kid?
Trail Baboon 
Oh Anna, what a lovely ode to one of my favorite places on earth! I loved school libraries. My biggest thrill in elementary school was being allowed to volunteer in the library to shelve books, straighten shelves, etc.
My first job was as a page at the public library. We each had a section of the library to shelve in the 2 hours we worked after school. I really lucked out in the summer-I got Children’s Books for 2 months.
I re-read EB White and found he had also written Trumpet of the Swan. I read all the real (non-Disney) Mary Poppins. Spending a day surrounded by Mr Popper’s Penguins, Dr Doolittle, Mrs Piggle-Wiggle, the Borrowers, and even Harold and his purple crayon was like being in another , wonderful world.
Anna, thanks for the trip down memory lane!
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Beth Ann… all of your favorites were mine as well. Harry the Dirty Dog, Ping the Duck, everything by Dr. Seuss. I’d better stop. I could do this all day and I’m sure I would never be able to explain it adequately to my boss if I’m late!
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Morning all!
Aah, reading and libraries… my favorite topics (well, after the teenager). When I was little, we didn’t have a lot of money and as an extension, not many books. So my mother read the books that we had over and over again. By the time I was four, I knew most of my books by heart and many adults thought I was reading as I sat w/ a book in my lap, reciting aloud and even turning the pages at the right place. We had the classics: The Poky Puppy, The Velveteen Rabbit. As I got older and got my first library card, I zipped through the Little House books, Jane Eyre, Little Women, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew. I also remember an American historical series from one of my school libraries – George Washington, Betsy Ross, John Adams, Daniel Boone – each book was exactly 200 pages long and I read every single one of them. When I was in 5th grade, we visited the local library as a class and each student was allowed to check-out one book. I’m not sure how I ended up with The Hunchback of Notre Dame in my hand, but when the librarian tried to discourage me (“it’s too hard a read”), it just egged me on.
The current technology of the Hennepin County/Minneapolis libraries is wonderful. I can request books online with ease and I get an email when books are ready for me and also when they are due. I also have several of my favorite authors listed on author alert, so as soon as the library systems purchases books by these authors, I can an email (MiG, this was how I got hold of the latest Jasper Fforde so quickly.) I know my library card number by heart and check my account every day – waiting for the newest arrival or making sure I’m not late with anything, which has greatly reduced my overdue fees!
In a happy coincidence, Anna’s library is also my library. When it was closed for a serious remodel about 15 years ago, it seemed like an eternity. There are two reading areas, one on the adult side and one on the kid’s side. I always take my book and read on the kid’s side. It has comfy sofas and a lovely mural on the arched ceiling. Much more conducive to a good sit w/ a book.
Happy Monday everybody.
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VS-Did your historical books have orange bindings. I think the titles I remember were in this format: Dale Connelly-Blogmaster and Radio man
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Alas, I don’t remember the bindings. I think I remember that they were all 200 pages long because at that young age, I was amazed that you could fit all these different lives all onto exactly 200 pages. Aah, sweet youth.
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Good morning, fellow baboons. Great memories, Anna. I’ll answer the daily question a bit later.
I’ve written about telling bedtime stories to my daughter, Molly. We would occasionally read to her as well, but at night she usually preferred stories. When she first began to read, her grandmother gave her a boxed set of the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I believe there are seven in that series.
I remember one night when I decided I would start that series with Molly. I forget her age, but she was very small. Maybe first grade. After some playful talk I offered to read the first book in the series.
“I’ve already read it,” said Molly.
“Oh? Well, I’ll read the next one to you.”
“I read that too. I read them all.”
And I thought, good lord we have a READER here! All alone, with no prompting, my little girl had read seven books.
Not long after that I remember a fight at our local library. A very nice librarian decided that Molly could take home 16 books, but not more. Molly protested that she wanted to read more than that. When our family went to our cabin for a weekend in the woods, Molly typically had six or seven books in her backpack to read.
Now Molly lives in the town with the world’s biggest bookstore, Porter’s. She was there a few years ago with her husband, buying books. As Molly headed for the cash register with a dozen books, John said, “You know Molly, you don’t have to buy so many. You see, all these books in Porter’s are really yours! They’re just stored here until you need them!”
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Rise and Shine Baboons:
Man, do I feel OLD. I don’t remember Dr. Seuss books when I was young, but I remember reading these “new” author books to my younger cousins. Can that be possible?
OK. It is. I just Wikied it, and find that the first one (The House on Mulberry Street) came out in 1958. So to me Dr. Seuss is not a classic, he is a new author!! Snicker.
As a little one the ones I remember liking are “What Do Daddies Do All Day?” which I have quoted here on the trail. A second one was something like “The 500 Dresses” about a girl who wore the same dress everyday and told stories about her 500 dresses in her closet. Then later, Laura Ingalls Wilder reigned in my life with her Little House books.
The library itself and the librarian herself will be the subject of a blog some day.
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My, my, you ARE old! Were your first library books chiseled on stone tablets or printed out on papyrus parchment? 🙂
Actually, Clyde and I might have another contest for being the oldest library users. Anyone else remember when visitors to the Hennepin County library were greeted by an Egyptian mummy?
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I remember the mummy
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i had forgotten about that first library card. caedboard thinck as an egg carton and a big metal bar wit the number stamped on it so it could go through the machine. you needed a wallet just for the card. i remember reading some of the classics, robinson carousoe, swiss family robinson, the black stallion, my friend flicka mark twain stuff , but what i liked was the racy stuff. one called brass knuckles was the story of a kid who got into trouble with the law got into fights and hid out while the police were after him. kind of the james dean mentality i supose. the libraries were so small that yo would kind of create your own wait list. the shelves showed you what else there was and you could get it next time. fiction, how to, biographies, poetry. i still take my kids wandering down different aisles at the library jst to see whats there, books on stars, ocean critters, studies of bolivia, don’t know what to read …turn the corner, something wil get you, what a world and the library is the perfect example of having it all at our fingertips. today we have the internet, information flows out of it like old faithful geyser, have a thought? type it in and bammo 4000 things to check, libraries and book stores is where we had to go to look stuff up. i like books. someting to hold and turn the pages of and a choice to stick it in your brain. internet downloads seem like factoids that do a bathroom version of the story at hand rather than the in depth study done between the pages of a hardcover. i visit libraries when i travel, wen i am meeting someone it is usually at a bookstore so if we are early or late it is a wait well spent. thanks anna for the nice start to the week.
i dont read much vince flynn and the like toda but every now and then i watch a guy flick and get a kick out of it, bruce willis or harrison ford or sean conery seem to do this stuff but i tend to be more the
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i had forgotten my last paragraph was tacked on there. i read a vince flynn when he spoke at thelibrary a couple years ago and it impressed me that a guy with inverted letters disease writes so well. my sister has it and her brain works wel but the reading and writing portion of her life suck. what a jip. it would be like going through life with no taste buds. vince said it fustrated him so much he wrote to get even. i have a cousin who is a wonderful abstract painter who sits n his studio with vhs tapes laing while he works. he choses a story like i chose an album. guy flicks and guy stories. i need t get into some of that agian for fun. the dashell hammet, louis lamoure, tny hillerman, micky spllane, what a world to be able to transport off to wherever with a page selection
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It’s great to read about the love of libraries. I used to ride every Saturday morning on the Grand Avenue bus down to the main downtown Saint Paul library. It cost fifteen cents then. I read all of the Beverly Cleary books and loved an animal series with titles like The Otter’s Story, The Beaver’s Story etc. I felt pretty big when I started going down the hall to the Young Adult room and from there up the wide marble stairway to the beautiful reference room. Now I am a patron of the Hennepin County library and agree–the technology is fantastic, and there are so many great enrichment programs and events like Pen Pals, the author series. Libraries are getting more use than ever now and are always in a financial pinch. Volunteer or give them some money if you can.
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Keelin Kane – welcome to the trail. There are two HCLib programs that I really like. The first is the Visit a Museum program – several of us on the trail used this last summer when we had our first field trip to the Museum of Russian Art. I also am fond of the “Talk of the Stacks” program.
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Ooh, I’d forgotten about Beverly Cleary – yes! Welcome, Keelin Kane.
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Welcome Keelin:
It is fun to play, and write on the trail. I’ve come to believe most of us are writers or artists of some ilk.
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Wonderful, Anna, and a great trip down memory lane. Storm Lake Iowa, a beautiful old Carnegie library where the kids department downstairs had its round reading table tucked away in the turret corner. Curious George and Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal were the first I remember. Then on to things my teachers would read to us, and I liked rereading: The Boxcar Children, Little House books, something with Elmer and Einer in it, Lois Lenski’s Strawberry Girl. I was thrilled with the book club books too from school, that I could keep – yes, Little Women and Jane Eyre. And we had a bird book with great color plates that I can still see in my minds eye – I watch for the book at antiquarian bookstores. I’m sure I’ll remember more as the day wears on… it’s gonna be a warm one, Babooners.
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One of the many libraries of my childhood (we moved around a lot) was also a Carnegie library – in Jefferson City, Missouri. It was across the street from the grocery store, so my mom would drop me at the library while she was doing the shopping. The summer we lived there, the library gave out little treasure maps made up of squares – for each book you read, you filled in a little square and if you finished the map, you got a little prize (I don’t remember the prizes, just the maps). I filled up three maps that summer and we still use this map w/ squares template for the teenager’s reading program every summer. In fact, we just made up the map over the weekend!
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Fabulous idea – I think I shall steal your maps for Daughter this summer. We just hauled home 2 bags of books from the Friends of the Library sale over the weekend and was thinking of a good incentive to get Ms. S. to read them during the summer.
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Anna – if you want to borrow any rubber stamps for your treasure map, let me know. I have some great stamps for treasure map, treasure chest, parrots, gold coins… even a pirate teddy bear!
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VS – I will check and see what we have in stock at our house. If I don’t find good stickers in our sprawling sticker stock (which I dare not say too many times in a row), I will be in touch about borrowing a stamper or two. Thanks!
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It all started when I began paging through our set of illustrated encyclopedia’s when I was 4 years old and my sister had gone off to kindergarten, leaving me to play by myself for the first time since I can remember. So I pretended to ‘read’ since that’s what Cathy was learning to do in school. I actually taught myself to read by doing that and quizzing my mother on any word I would see in newspapers, billboards, street signs, in stores, anywhere.
I was heavily into sports biographies in elementary school: Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Wlater Johnson, Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays, even Harmon Killebrew.
Then in 4th grade I got hooked on the Civil War. Sayonara sports bios!
“Treasure Island” is a classic that resonated with me. I had a copy with several color illustrations that made the story even more real for me.
A bit later, junior high perhaps, I somehow found my way to C.S. Forester’s classic Horatio Hornblower series. Since then I’ve loved historical novels of all kinds. John Jake’s chronicling of American history starting with ‘The Bastard” put history in real terms, with ‘real people’ actually living the life of the Revolutionary War all the way up through the early 1900s.
I can’t imagine a world without books to read. I mostly read non-fiction these days, but now as an aspiring novelist, I’m reading more good examples of mysteries, thrillers and suspense novels, as well as ‘how to write’ books. I’ll read until I can’t see anymore, whenever that might happen, and then switch to recorded books.
Chris in Owatonna
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Good luck with the writing, Chris!
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Oh yes, Horatio Hornblower and Robinson Crusoe too, loved them.
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Good morning to all:
I didn’t go the the city library when I was a kid, it came to me. Jackson, Michigan had a bus loaded with books that stopped in our part of town once a week and I visited it regularly during the summers. I’m not sure if it came in the winter. At least half of the books, which lined the sides of the bus, were children’s books and I think as I got older I also read some of the classic book for adults such as those by Mark Twain.
My childhood reading also came before some the children’s stories that are popular today. The author that I remember the most is Stephen Meader. Wikipedia says that he wrote 40 or more books for young boys. I think I must have read at least half of his offerings. I remember that there was a historic theme to some of them. They were adventure stories with boys engaged is some kind of adventure in a historic setting or they could also have contemporary settings.
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I love bookmobiles. My mom was such an advocate for library access for everybody that she somehow managed to get the bookmobile to make one of their stops at our house (we lived in the country). Pretty cool.
I have read some of Stephen Meader’s books…just not when I was a kid. Very enjoyable.
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I haven’t previously seen or hear any references to Stephen Meader, although I was able find a Wikipedia refenerence. I was very fascinated by his books. It is nice to hear from another person who likes his writing, Edith. I had to walk a couple of blocks to the bookmobile. I’m sure it would be cool to have the bookmobile stop at your house.
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My mom used to schedule her trips to the pharmacist based on when the bookmobile would be on the same corner. That way my brother and I could go visit the bookmobile while she ran in to get my dad’s prescriptions filled. Loved that little blue van/bus. Magic on wheels.
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My folks didn’t read to me or buy me books. That just wasn’t part of the culture they’d grown up in. When I was seven I discovered a book in our family library called The Island Stallion by Walter Farley. It had that boy-and-his-horse thing going for it, plus a Caribbean island, wild horses descended from a Spanish shipwreck, skeletons, Spanish conquistadors and quicksand. How could any boy not love such a book? Though I came to books late, I fell hard in love with books and libraries. I remember the Jim Kjelgaard “Big Red” books plus a series set in the north woods where youngsters dealt with Windigos. And later I remember the shock of joy when I finished my first Sherlock Holmes book and caught on to the idea that this was a series that would go on delighting me for months to come.
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Oh, Steve… the Big Red books. I devoured them and I’ve always credited Jim Kjelgaard with my lifelong love affair with Irish Setters!
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I would sneak into the “adult” section of our little library for the Albert Terhune books about his Collie’s…then needed to have one on my own. Ended up with a couple and still love them.
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I was always at war with the librarians over which part of the library I was allowed to use. I quickly got restless about the children’s section, and kept trying to go upstairs where the good stuff was kept. In the 1950s the librarians often saw their job as defending books from the public. I can’t imagine a modern librarian having trouble with a kid who is wild to read books, even books not written for children.
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Sherlock Holmes was in my mix too.
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Hi, I’m new here and was planning to lurk for a while longer (forever?) before I posted, but I just cannot resist this topic.
It is good that Anna narrowed it down to my favorite books when I was a kid, because there are so many I discovered when I read books to my daughters when they were young and even now at my advanced age I still read kids’ books just because I enjoy them…which means I could have gone on nearly forever if Anna had asked what our favorite kids’ books were now and in the past.
These are some of the books I loved as a kid: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss; Home for a Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown; a picture book I don’t remember the title of about a boy named Epandimonius (or something like that) who stepped in a bunch of pies that were cooling on the porch; Curious George; Harriet the Spy; My Side of the Mountain; The Four-Story Mistake; King of the Wind; One Morning in Maine; and the several volume set My Bookhouse (edited by Olive Beaupre Miller).
Jacque, the book you remember about the dresses is The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes.
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Welcome, welcome Edith. This is a topic hard to resist, isn’t it? The Hundred Dresses is a new one for me, but I just put in a request for it at the library – can’t wait!
I just realized that none of us has mentioned “Anne of Green Gables” yet. Or “A Wrinkle in Time”. These were two more of my favorites when I was young.
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Thanks for the welcome!
Oh yes, A Wrinkle in Time is one of my favorites, but I just couldn’t remember if I read it when I was a kid or when I was a “grown-up” so I left it off my list. I know I came to Anne of Green Gables later in life, too.
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Welcome Edith! Didn’t you just love the cover of 100 Dresses? The watercolor was so appealing to me.
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I’m glad others know this book. I never forgot it–the impact of poverty on that child and how she used her imagination to cope. Thanks for the reference.
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Oops. And welcome Edith
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Yes, I love Louis Slobodkin’s illustrations.
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And Jacque, I don’t have many talents, but once in a while I can come up with the title of a book for someone! But then, there’s many that I can’t remember for myself…sigh. Glad I could help!
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Hey Edith – don’t sell yourself short. In this bunch, coming up with the title of a book is a HUGE asset!
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Oh Edith! Welcome and I know what you mean about which books are your childhood memories and which you discovered with your children.
I also loved the 100 Dresses, but was completely unaware of Ginger Pye, Pinky Pye and the Moffats-all by Eleanor Estes. One of the lovely things about those older books, I am finding, is that they don’t necessarily have “age-appropriate” vocabulary, but do have “age appropriate” content-which is great if you have a “reader” on your hands. The stories are also quite good and not terribly “issues” laden. My reader does not like “contempory realistic fiction” for that reason (he also lost an argument with a teacher than Dickens wrote contemporary fiction, the counter positition being that he wrote “historical” fiction-I’ll let you guys decide on that one).
Me, I was all about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Caddie Woodlawn, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and then there were the Great Illustrated Classics-including Oliver Twist, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Les Miserables (yup, those were “too hard” for a 3-4 grader too, but nobody told me that)-all from the tiny library above the tiny candy store on Main Street in Coon Rapids, IA.
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MIG: Did you get the email from Ravelry that someone hacked into a KNITTING site. KNITTING? Really?
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yup, got that and changed my password-I guess there is gold in them thar knitting bags!
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Ah – so fun to read the stories (did I mention I like to read stories?). I am another fan of the Little House books (I have waded in Plum Creek outside Walnut Grove), Beverly Clearly, and “Make Way for Ducklings.” Also “Blueberries for Sal” and one by a local author called “The Monster’s Nose Was Cold” (a charming little picture book that I checked out numerous times from the school library). I grew up with Dr. Seuss and remember being very proud when I had conquered “Hop on Pop.” Once I discovered Encylopedia Brown and Trixie Belden, I became a devoted mystery fan (I had previously tried Nancy Drew, but to me she seemed kinda wimpy – too reliant on her pesky boyfriend and not nearly as adventuresome as the Hardy Boys).
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Anna, your description in your posting about your technique for getting extra time to read at bed time as a child reminds me of a similar experience from my youth. When I was told I had to put my book away, turn off my lights, and get to sleep, I would get a flash light and use it to read under my blankets. I think my parents sometimes noticed the light from the flash light and told me to turn it off. However, I believe there were some nights when I got away with reading late into the night under my blankets using the flash light.
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Did anyone have their parents told that the reason one needed classes in third grade (or thereabouts) was all that reading in bed with a bad light?
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I’ll bet you mean glasses, right?
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why, yes, thank you BiR (although when I got contacts, I did need classes to go with them-eyes did not like the idea of finger being poked in them). 🙂
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My mother always complained that I read too much and was very clear that we could not afford to but books for me. Greatest day was when the new library opened in (long) walking distance. Unfortunately they started a limit on the number of books you could check out and it was not enuff to get thru the weekend. One of my friends is a teacher and voracious reader. She says the trick is to make reading a guilty pleasure and seditious act so kids read out of spite and love.
Does anyone else remember The All of a Kind Family (an observant Jewish immigrant family in NY)? Can’t forget Secret Garden and The Little Princess.
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Yes, yes… ok I think I’m getting delirious on this topic!
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Ooh, yes, I discovered The All-of-a-Kind Family books when reading to my girls. So good! And I like A Little Princess, too. I have a weakness for fairy-tale-type books with happy endings. A Little Princess is not a fairy tale but there are similarities.
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What’s happening with our Gravatars today? Mine has a question mark.
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I’m not seeing any question marks… just your morning glories (I think they’re morning glories…..).
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I read a lot of the series that Beth-Ann mentioned – Mary Poppins, Dr. Doolittle, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. There was something comforting about getting into an author with a lot of titles on the shelf – when you finished one, you weren’t really finished, you could go back to the library over and over for more.
I also loved the animal stories – the horse books by Marguerite Henry, and dog stories by Jim Kjelgaard. Black Beauty, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, Lassie Come Home.
Anyone else remember Zilpha Keatley Snyder? There was one of hers in particular that I loved, The Velvet Room, about a migrant family going to pick peaches in California. My godmother used to send me books for my birthday, a lot of Newberry Award winners. I think she might have sent me that one.
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Oh, and Island of the Blue Dolphins, and the Pippi Longstocking books, , and Heidi, and Little Women.
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Linda.. funny you should mention Newbery winners. The rule for this summer’s reading program is that I get to pick three of her books (plus whatever she is assigned by the school for the summer also counts as her reading). The first of my picks is “Island of the Blue Dolphins” since I know she was never assigned it in school. (I told her it was a gift since it’s well below her current reading level.)
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We just picked up “Island of the Blue Dolphins” used for me to read aloud to Daughter. I missed this one as a kid, so I’m excited to read it now. We are working through the Betsy, Tacy and Tib books right now (and we have read Pippi twice – love love love Pippi).
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I don’t remember the title Velvet Room, but do remember a story about a migrant family picking peaches that was pretty gritty-was there also a pretty ghastly scene about a girl getting her hair caught in a potato picking machine in that book.
There was also a perfectly lovely book called “Family Sabbatical”, in which the family goes to Paris and lives for a year. I think there was also a pair of Siamese cats involved, but I could be combining 2 books in my mind.
One of the loveliest memories I have of elementary school is the daily reading aloud by the teacher after noon recess (yes, right up through 6th grade). Maybe that still exists in some schools, but there most definitely is no time for such stuff at my son’s school-sigh.
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That’s sad and irresponsible.
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You’d cry if I told you all the stuff there is “no time and/or money” for.
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I sure loved Amelia Bedelia. Hello, all. 🙂
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Nice to hear from you again, Equivoque! And I gotta agree about Amelia Bedelia – she sure knew how to draw drapes. 🙂
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Family Sabbatical is by Carol Ryrie Brink (author of Caddie Woodlawn). I haven’t read it yet so I don’t know if there are Siamese cats in it or not. I saw this book recently at a used bookstore but it was too pricey for my wallet.
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In junior high, I got to be a student librarian for a while, shelving books. I was in h eaven – and I found some things out of my usual range. Decided to try a “boy’s book” – Up Periscope (by Robb White) which I found riveting! I remember reading a rather old (in 1960) book about a girl in the depression, all I remember is the new term “bluestocking”, which had come to mean “an educated, intellectual women.” For more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluestocking
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We had a great public library in my home town. I spent hours there in the summer. I loved the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. Harriet the Spy, Snow Treasure, Wrinkle in Time, oh, the list goes on an on. Linda, I also loved The Velvet Room. We subscribed to Cricket magazine for our kids, and both my kids loved it. We lived in Indiana one year and the library in Columbus, IN was also wonderful. It had a huge Henry Moore statue in front, and the book collection was amazing. The library in our current town recently added on, the result of bequests and oil money. It is more a regional library, and the bookmobile travels hundreds of miles into the rural areas around us. Welcome Edith and Keelin
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In junior high I discovered The Education of Hyman Kaplan. I laughed so loud they booted me out of study hall.
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We didn’t have a school library during my elem. years – just book corners in our individual classrooms. My mom was a kdgn. teacher, always hunting for books and she regularly took us along with, to either the small library in Webb – 8 miles from our farm, or to the big one in Spencer (of Dewey the Library Cat fame). She was also great about letting us order paperbacks from the book club forms we brought home from school. You kids have named so many faves, I’m swooning! A few more: Homer Price, The Door in the Wall, The Enormous Egg, Stewart Little, Misty of Chincoteague, and Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch.
I was at AbeBooks.com for awhile looking some of these up because I wasn’t sure of the titles and happened upon two others, near and dear to my young at heart, heart. *Many Moons by James Thurber – tale of how a wise little princess gets the moon for her birthday. It won the Caldecott Medal in 1944. *Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett – about a witch’s mortal daughter who wants to go to school and whose mother turns children into potted plants – beguiling reading at the age of 9 or so. Apparently it’s considered rare and is priced up to $250.
Thanks for the lovely topic, Anna. There’s a quote that goes, “My idea of paradise has always been some kind of a library.”
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I had Little Witch. Wish I could say I had kept it.
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Afternoon everyone–
Welcome Edith and Keelin!
We didn’t get to the public library in town very often. We always had a fair number of books at home though and Mom would would sign me up for children’s book clubs fairly often. Or I’d order them through the school- what was it ‘Scholastic Book Club’ maybe? With the paper order forms and such?
(As my kids went through school it seemed they bought two or three of those home a week and I’d think ‘Really? Another one of these??’)
I read Laura Ingalls (and currently in the middle of the series with my daughter).
And then there was the ‘I Can Read’ series of books. Those were mine. Like ‘The Fire Cat’ and ‘Danny and the Dinosaur’, something about a baby bear being cold and mother bear makes him hat, mittens, boots, pants… , ‘Sammy the Seal’… there were several of those books and I wish I still had the originals.
As I got older I was into ‘Dennis the Menace-pocket full of fun’ books and spent my allowance on them monthly. So much for my hi quality literature!
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Many of those I Can Read books are in my classroom book corner. The Little Bear books (by Else Holmelund Minarik, illustrated by Maurice Sendak) are so tender and endearing, it’s hard to believe they’re written for early readers.
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I have memory of having a boxed set of the Little Bear books from Scholastic (probably purchased at a book fair at school). The illustrations are lovely.
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Yes, esp. “A Kiss for Little Bear.” 🙂
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Donna, your comment about the books in your classroom reminds about how reading books to elementary classes helped me get through subbing in these classes. I found out that, at least for me, subbing for an elementary grade teacher can be a dificult job. One of the best things I found to help me make it throught a day with these kids was reading books to them.
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Smart man, Jim. My dear friend and mentor who taught across the hall from me for years has been doing some subbing, post retirement. The last week of school she was back in her old room, and she came tearing into my room looking for some of her favorite read alouds. She knew I had them because she’d given them to me. Storytime is invaluable for a multitude of reasons.
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Just thought of another series I was crazy for in 3rd and 4th grade. Bobbsey Twins. That fantasy of having a twin carried me away. When I read them now, they are terrible.
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Jacque same here. I thought they were cool and am now embarrassed that I missed how racist they were. They weren’t in the library and neither was Cherry Ames the nurse with a different job in every episode.
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to which I can only respond NANCY DREW!!!!! the roadster, the clothes, the nifty boyfriend, and her friends, George and … and… oh drat!
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A belated welcome to Keelin and Edith from me as well.
I know what you mean, Jacque, about the shock of discovery upon reading an old favorite book with modern eyes. Donna mentioned “Homer Price,” a favorite for me then and now for the story about the donut machine, but a disappointment now for the racism on display. Dang!
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Thanks for the nice welcomes from you all. This is a rich and wonderful mine. Really makes me nostalgic for the feeling of summer stretching into what felt like forever with not much to do but read and ride my bike. And be home for dinner.
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and eat popsicles!
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Welcome to the trail Edith and Kelin, and thanks Anna for a wonderful topic.
It’ll probably not come as surprise that much of what you all read as children is foreign to me, most, but not all. I didn’t learn to read until I entered 1st grade at age 7, so my early memory of books was being read to. Hans Christian Andersen and Brothers Grimm fairytales were favorites. In grade school I loved Pipi Longstocking’s adventures and the exploits of the Danish equivalent of the Nancy Drew, Puk (only Puk didn’t have a boufriend. I really envied Pipi that she didn’t have parents to boss her around; Heidi was another favorite. Once I got my own library card at age 11, my reading became very eclectic. I read everything form Dickens to Steinbeck. I loved reading about the arctic explorers, and became a life-long opponent of the death penalty when I read Carryll Chessman’s book “Death Row.” Willard Motley’s “Knock on Any Door” was another books that greatly affected my world view at an early age.
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” likewise. “Alice in Wonderland” was my first book in English, and because I couldn’t read English at that time, I was mostly affected by the wonderful illustrations. In retrospect, I often wonder if there were librarians along the way who influenced my book choices without me even knowing it. Surely I could not have stumbled on all of these wonderful books by accident.
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Keelin, sorry for messing up your name.
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Anna – you found the perfect topic – so fun to read all the comments and see new Baboons talking to us all. welcome and thanks so much!
now i’ll go on to say that i am the token illiterate TBB. i could say that my parents didn’t encourage reading (they didn’t) but my friend says “Barb, we’ve been out of the house for many more years than we lived there – we have to quit blaming our parents!” so i take the blame. i read only things like “Dairy Goats for Pleasure and Profit” Harvey Considine, or “Home Cheesemaking” Ricki Carroll, or “Goat Song” etc., etc.
i so admire you who relish reading so much. i can remember one book i read in third grade “Wahoo Bobcat” but i couldn’t tell you what the story line was except a bobcat in Florida. i probably skipped to the last page for that one also.
but i did just finish a really great pen area for the Girls – and a wonderful door with cedar posts on either side. and they have two entrance/exits to their portico now and will have a third by tomorrow evening.
a gracious good day to You All
thanks again, Anna – great topic!
and welcome
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Barb – you’re as illiterate as I am a “teacher of the year” candidate.
I have a friend whose husband says, “People shouldn’t read. It just gives them ideas.” Maybe your parents didn’t want you to become a democrat.
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Hi All!
This is my first post, because, I could not resist. I think I have had my happiest times in our local Library. Carting my kids twice a week to get ANY book they wanted (in the children’s section of course, all one could carry). I remember when my son was in graduate school (education) and he had to interview me about our reading experience as a family. We had a wonderful time remembering his favorite books and how our bed-time ritual of reading was such a happy memory for him as well. He got his first job by responding to an add placed on the cork board in the foyer of the library. My daughter picked up a VCR player (1995?) with a “For Free” card placed on it- right outside the Library door and kept it in her room, hooked up to an ancient TV set and felt like such a big girl. Summer reading clubs, free movie rentals, etc. I even ENJOY paying my library fines because I feel as if it is my spiritual tithe to an (almost) holy space.
OK, my first posted confession.
Thanks.
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Thanks for joining in, Carolyn, and welcome.
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Hi Carolyn!
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I try to get things back by the due date, but I can’t really resent it when I get a fine. Thanks for the term “spiritual tithe”, Carolyn – it’s a good name for a feeling I never put a name to before.
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Welcome, Carolyn, and you have coined a phrase that may just have to go in to the baboon Glossary Of Accepted Terms. (GOAT)
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I’m a slow reader, always have been and always will be, partly because I like to savor the words and enjoy the cadence of the narrative. I’ll never be able to read all the books on my Bucket list. Worse, I hate to admit it, but I have reached a stage in my life that I can readily identify with the following Billy Collins poem:
Forgetfulness
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
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Hits much closer to home than I really want to admit.
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Wow, wonderful list of bloggers, old and new friends whom I hope stay.
As I have said before, my wife was a wonderful public librarian, children in the afternoon, adults at night, loved by all, lonely old men and small kids alike.
Just saw a book at B & N called Libraries of Minnesota, which did include my wife’s library, the old Carnegie part. Two Harbors, you know, would have to have a Carnegie Library, sop for all the underpaid railroaders and boat loaders who were his minions.
I was reading before first grade (which raised very angry hackles in the teacher, Miss Corkoran and the principal, Miss Priest–are those not perfect names?) but have no memory of any specific books until about grade 6. Odd that I do not. But I do not remember toys or games either. I read a lot I know, but my parents would never have gone or taken us to the library. Nor were their books in our house, except a cheap set of encyclopedias form the National Tea and a Bible, an odd thing, or not, for atheists to have. My very intelligent mother did not read much ever in the time I knew her.
No libraries at our elementary schools. Bet they were taken out to be classrooms for the baby boomers right behind my class, as were even store rooms.
I remember Golden Books, I think. But for sure the Little Big Books. Lots of comic books, not sure how, since there was no way we bought them. Red Ryder in both.
Before I started school, my sister Cleo would come home from school every day and we would play school and she would teach me what she had learned that day, using the materials she received in school that day. And thus: 1) I learned to read and 2) she set herself up for her life’s ambition to teach, which she did, ending up a CD just north of Donna.
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Your wife was librarian in Two Harbors? My mom was librarian for a while in Grand Marais…not quite neighbors, but relatively close for that neck of the woods.
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Oh no I think we’ve forgotten The Phantom Tollbooth and Madeline. What a wonderful day lots of books and even better lots of new friends in the conversation! Anna, thanks for launching us on this journey on the trail!
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Ah, The Phantom Tollbooth. I bought a copy for my husband while we were dating He had never read it as a kid, the poor dear. I love the idea of a Watch Dog. 🙂
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Thanks all for the wonderful stories and memories and books – makes me want to go back to my old elementary school library, settle down on one of the “whistle chairs” (so named because that’s how they were shaped), and read a stack of favorites.
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Narnia.
Green Knowe.
The Phantom of Walkaway Hill and other Edward Fenton books.
7 Day Magic.
The Door into Summer by Robert Heinlein. (my first grown-up book)
Henry Reed, inc.
Homer Price.
OH, people, sumer is icumin in! I want to curl up in the back yard and READ!
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Caps for Sale
Babar
By the way, thanks to all of you, I’ve added about 10 new requests to my already long library request list!
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Ferdinand The Bull
Sher – I really think you’d like Many Moons.
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Did anyone ever read The Swing in the Summer house? That was a strange and wonderful book
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How about The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom? They dressed as ice cream cones for Halloween. Then there is The Golden Name Day. Somehow we’ve gotten this far without mention of Charlotte’s Web……
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O00hh…. Charlotte’s Web…….
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Ick en spick. Akendosh. I forget the 3rd one.
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A late story for anyone still up and at ’em, as per a reference above from Jim, I think: our grand-kids are here. They share a room. Jonah wants to sleep but Lily wants to still read, so we gave her a flash light.
Jonah, by the way, on his way to first grade, is discovering he can read, so he is thrilled with the power. That is so much fun to watch.
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When I was in about fifth grade or so, I had all the books I owned recorded on file cards, as my personal card catalog – one set of cards filed by title, and another set by author. I don’t think I had a subject index, as far as I can recall.
Millions of Cats, by Wanda Gag…
Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books…
Blackbeard’s Ghost, Magic Elizabeth, Katie John, Hans Brinker, The Shawl With the Silver Bells, Mama’s Bank Account.
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Ronia the Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren
Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield
and for contemporary, this year I tried out Hoot and Scatby Carl Hiaasen
Wow, I have a whole new list of books to look for in the kids and YA sections. 🙂 Thanks, everybody.
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Hi again,
I don’t know if anyone will see this, a few days after that fun flurry of activity, but I thought I’d post this link which I found thanks to the Shelf Awareness site, and from there to a cool blog called Letters of Note, which posts interesting letters. When the public library in Troy Michigan opened years ago the librarians asked a wide range of people to write to children to let them know the importance of libraries. There were many wonderful responses from the likes of E.B. White, Isaac Asimov, etc. I hope you enjoy reading these love letters to libraries. http://troylibrary.info/letterstothechildrenoftroy.
Thanks Dale for your nice note of welcome, and thanks to to you all. You have a nice community.
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