From: judy.schachter at comcast.net <judy.schachter>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 02:59:19 +0000

I was one of those kids who related to early readers about Dick and Jane, perhaps because my first books were "HoneyBunch" and the Bobbsey Twins. I looked forward to birthdays because my Aunt Ellen always bought me these. Did they change my life? No, but my life was reflected in them. They helped me love to read. It also made it easy for me to understand the need for multicultural mirrors.
  Once I was older and got "Heidi" an amusing effect on my life was that I insisted my father buy brown bread and cheese so that I could eat what she ate.
  A very savy teacher gave me "Ginger Pye" the year it was published and I loved it. Probably it was that same teacher's elementary classroom that held "Strawberry Girl" and "Wheel on the School" and the "All of a Kind Family" series. I became known as a bookworm.
   In my house growing up, we had Readers Digest condensed books. The first truly scary story I ever read was Davis Gibb's "NIght of the Hunter, " condensed. Keep me awake at night for years.
   The other two books, read when I was bit older, that really did change my life were "Seventeenth Summer", which I read and re-read and used as the basis for an essay on my application to library school, and "Exodus," which led me to Judaism, along with many other influences, of course!
  Judy Schachter
  retired school librarian, cataloging assistant
  at Mt. Zion, St. Paul MN
Received on Tue 23 May 2006 09:59:19 PM CDT