Thursday, March 21, 2013

"A Girl of the Limberlost"

A recent conversation with my mom revealed that she still had a copy of the FIRST novel she ever read.
It is titled "A Girl of the Limberlost".
My mom is a voracious reader and I have her to thank for my own love of literature.  She says that the actual story (A Girl of the Limberlost) was not quite as memorable as the fact that she kept and remembered her first full novel read.
That got me to thinking if I could remember my first "big read".
I could not! 
I have a few copies from the series "The Happy Hollisters" by Jerry West. The Happy Hollisters were a mystery solving/very happy family. I soooo wanted to be a part of that family!  Adventure and mystery solving followed the Hollisters (or at least the kids in the family) everywhere they went!  How cool is that?  AND they all treated each other like they were truly an important part of each others lives.
I think it was one of my earliest attempts to "escape" my not so ideal childhood.
I also have my copy of Heidi by Johanna Spyri, that I received as a gift when I was nine.  I am not sure how many times I read that story...and cried/got mad/and happy at all the twists and turns Heidi's life took.  I dreamed of eating goat cheese and gnawing on a crusty piece of warm bread for my dinner.  The straw bed that she slept on even sounded inviting to me (because her grandfather took extra care to make sure it was soft and billowy).  And I believed in "happy endings".
I also LOVED horse stories, and any story that had animals in it. 
Everyone reads for different reasons with mine being mostly to "escape" into the magic of the story.  That would explain why I shy away from anything too gruesome or scary. 
And I also guess it doesn't really matter if I remember that FIRST big read...I'm just thankful that whoever the author was, he or she inspired me to be a life long visitor to the library (and to Powell's City of Books here in Portland!)
Do you remember what was the first read that got you "hooked"?

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