Childhood Reading
I think that the reading you do when you’re young has a bigger affect on you that any other reading you do in your life. I’m sure there are exceptions to that, but reading you do when you’re a child is really powerful. It shapes you as a future reader, and possibly as a writer, too. I know it did for me.
When I was a child, my favorite books were the old fashioned ones where kids met obstacles with cheerfulness and perserverence, and were rewarded in the end. I also loved books where family was important, and if a character was a story-teller, it was a plus.
Some of my absolute favorites from childhood were Little Women, A Little Princess, Anne of Green Gables, and The Five Little Peppers series. I read them over and over again. I adored the imaginations all these kids had. Anne Shirley, of course, had more imagination than anyone I’ve ever known, and always pulled it off with such drama and style. Jo March’s scribblings and the antics that the March girls got up to fascinated me. I wanted to write, I wanted to have my own Pickwick club, and I wanted to perform plays in my bedroom. I also wanted to be part of the incorrigible Pepper clan, who made figuring out a way to have Christmas with no money an exciting adventure. I wanted to adopt a lonely boy (like Laurie and Jappy) into my family (why were all the lonely boys filthy rich?). And I wanted to be able to tell stories like Sarah Crewe.
As an adult, I can see the didactic moments in these stories, and some of the morals of the day seem absurd now (the author of the Peppers was obsessed with the idea that it was bad for children to get upset and cry — woe behold the Pepper child who had a temper tantrum!), but as a kid, these were my imaginary friends, family, and siblings.
In the modern world, you never get to float down a river pretending to be a heroine from ancient literature, you never write on slates, and you seldom ramble through the woods. Texas isn’t much for snow, so I never went sledding or ice skating on a pond. It was a whole different world — a world where everyone always got their just desserts and virtures like patience and kindness were always rewarded.
Pie in the sky ideals, yes, but even today I think those are ideals to shoot for. If we all treated each other with that kind of respect and love, the world would be a different place. However, at this point, I don’t think I’m ever going to be adopted by a millionaire, so I’ve had to give up that dream!
When I got a little older, I discovered The Song of the Lioness quartet written by Tamora Pierce. This series probably affected my writing more than any other books I’ve ever read. The heroine, Alanna (a girl in disguise trying to earn her place as a knight), was fiesty and brave, but flawed. The supporting cast was well-drawn and fascinating. The world had its own quirks and laws, but had familiar aspects, too. If I ever succeed as a young adult author, I would love to see my books next to hers at the bookstore (though, I suppose I’d have to write under a pseudonym, wouldn’t I?).
So, what about you guys? What books did you read when you were young that really meant something to you? Did they affect your outlook on life? If you’re a writer, did they affect that aspect of your life at all?
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I’ve mentioned this before, but I was fortunate as a child in that the local librarian took an interest in me and pretty much let me have my run of the little two-room library she operated in our farm village in Ohio.
She guided me to The Black Stallion and The Island Stallion by Walter Farley, My Friend Flicka, all The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries, and on to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and then to Jack London and Phillip Wylie and so many others.
All of them taught me lessons about life and drew to to writing, because I couldn’t imagine anything greater than setting words to paper.
I think The Hobbit was the first “big” book I read when I was a kid. Our school library had this gorgeous illustrated edition I read in fourth grade. Tokein even got me into poetry, as I recall. I don’t know many 9-year-olds reading “Charge of the Light Brigade.”
Sometime after that I read the original Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy which, while not the finest example of prose, became some of my favorite books.
I read a lot of Judy Blume books as a kid, too. I identified with the characters, as they were mostly around my age.
I vaguely remember reading a lot of the classic children’s books, like the Hardy Boys and what not, but they didn’t make as much of an impression as the fantasy/sci-fi stuff.
I read a bunch of R.L. Stine when I was in junior high, but it never really stuck with me. After reading a few where it “was all a dream or hallucination” I swore his stuff off for good. Around 8th grade I read Paul Zindel’s “My Darling, My Hamburger” and instantly started devouring everything Zindel wrote. He’s probably had the most influence over my writing than anyone else. Also, I read “Rats Saw God” by Rob Thomas in 9th grade. His writing absolutely stunned me. I’d never read anything like it before! RSG seemed so much more in touch with reality than most of the YA novels I’d read up to that point. I wish he still wrote novels . . .