Could be the book you loved the most, the series you daydreamed about, book that inspired you, fascinated you, your comfort read…anything.
And why.
I LOVED the Anne McCaffrey Pern books. I would walk around daydreaming about new adventures set in the books’ world. The Dragonsong books really connected my love of music with my love of fantasy (and animals).
I loved Roald Dahl’s books, and also Jacqueline Wilson.
James and The Giant Peach and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory were my favorites from him.
I adored Roald Dahl books as a kid.
The Witches was my favorite as a kid, and when I was teaching 3rd grade it was my first read aloud every year. When you got to the part in the introduction about how even the teacher reading this might be a witch they’d all stare at me googly eyed, but a little terror is a great way to bond as a group, and reading something scary right off the bat always cemented my role as a Cool Teacher (◠‿・)—☆
Danny the champion of the world was by far my favorite book
Yesss, that one has a special place in my heart, read it with my mom.
I loved Danny too, and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
I tried to train myself to see through my eyelids after reading that one. I was so disappointed when it didn’t work.
I came here to mention Jacqueline Wilson. Her books resonated with me and got me through a lot of difficult childhood turmoils. I’ve been wanting to go back and reread them now as an adult but I’m a little worried I might lose some of the magic if I do.
I have special memories of Bad Girls. It was the first Jacqueline Wilson book I’d ever read, and I stumbled on it at the time I needed it most. I was quite close in age to Mandy and I was also being badly bullied at school. It was a horrible lonely time, and it felt as if Wilson had seen right into my head and based Mandy on my own worries and hopes.
I quite often hear people being dismissive about Wilson - her writing is too ‘easy’, it’s too repetitive, it doesn’t push children out of their comfort zone. While some of that may be true, especially the recycling of plotlines and character types, I think the critics have missed the point. Children themselves are often repetitive in how they play and what they like to do, and they do that because the repetition brings them something important. A kid having a difficult time could pick up any of Wilson’s books and on some level think, “Someone gets how I’m feeling. This is just like me!”. Other kids might be gently nudged into thinking about ‘weird’ classmates in a kinder way. I love how skillfully she’s able to assume the perspectives of children of all different ages too.
Same! My parents got divorced and my mum got me a book from Jacqueline Wilson called ‘The Suitcase Kid’ about a girl called Andy and her struggle in coping with her parents divorce.
Exactly the same for me! Oooh that was such a dear story to me, with the mulberry tree and the old couple that were so kind. Thank you for bringing those memories up for me, that book was such a comfort <3