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[CCBC-Net] [CCBC Net] - What books changed your life?
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From: Jo Ann Carr <carr>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 13:20:31 -0500
As a committed lurker on CCBC-Net, I must come out of the shadows and thank everyone for sharing in this excellent discussion. A few books stand out in my memory.
The first was a "Little Golden Book" version of Robert Stevenson's "A child's garden of verses". This title introduced me to poetry and to the wonder of language. I have since gone back to read the entire 'garden' and discovered that RLS had much more to say than I first realized.
This book was in the family bookcase, but the second book in my memory was mine alone. "Angelo, the naughty one" was left behind by the family moving out of our 'new house' and I found it. I spent many hours reading about the naughty little Mexican boy feeling all the while that I was learning about a new and exciting culture. Our new house was only two blocks from the public library and soon I was exploring other titles illustrated by Leo Politi.
More importantly, the library had the complete collection of Childhood of Famous Americans- a collection which I read in its entirety, including biographies of my first favorite author-Robert Louis Stevenson and the author whose works touched me the deepest-Louisa May Alcott.
Taking our cue from the March girls, the four middle girls in our family, spent many hours reenacting our favorite scenes from "Little Women". Although as the oldest of the four my sisters expected me to play the too-conventional Meg, I exercised my prerogative as organizer of our dramas to select the character whose love of writing and adventure spoke most closely to me-Jo. Forty years later, my sisters and I still speak of the March girls and how they allowed us to experience a world beyond the confines of 1960's small town America. Our re-enactments of "Little Women" are a part of our family lore told by our daughters and nieces.
My sisters and I continue to be voracious readers who love biography, history, stories of family, and poetry. But we have not found another sister story that speaks to us as does "Little Women".
Jo Ann Carr
Jo Ann Carr Director Center for Instructional Materials & Computing Instructional Media Development Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison
Received on Wed 24 May 2006 01:20:31 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 13:20:31 -0500
As a committed lurker on CCBC-Net, I must come out of the shadows and thank everyone for sharing in this excellent discussion. A few books stand out in my memory.
The first was a "Little Golden Book" version of Robert Stevenson's "A child's garden of verses". This title introduced me to poetry and to the wonder of language. I have since gone back to read the entire 'garden' and discovered that RLS had much more to say than I first realized.
This book was in the family bookcase, but the second book in my memory was mine alone. "Angelo, the naughty one" was left behind by the family moving out of our 'new house' and I found it. I spent many hours reading about the naughty little Mexican boy feeling all the while that I was learning about a new and exciting culture. Our new house was only two blocks from the public library and soon I was exploring other titles illustrated by Leo Politi.
More importantly, the library had the complete collection of Childhood of Famous Americans- a collection which I read in its entirety, including biographies of my first favorite author-Robert Louis Stevenson and the author whose works touched me the deepest-Louisa May Alcott.
Taking our cue from the March girls, the four middle girls in our family, spent many hours reenacting our favorite scenes from "Little Women". Although as the oldest of the four my sisters expected me to play the too-conventional Meg, I exercised my prerogative as organizer of our dramas to select the character whose love of writing and adventure spoke most closely to me-Jo. Forty years later, my sisters and I still speak of the March girls and how they allowed us to experience a world beyond the confines of 1960's small town America. Our re-enactments of "Little Women" are a part of our family lore told by our daughters and nieces.
My sisters and I continue to be voracious readers who love biography, history, stories of family, and poetry. But we have not found another sister story that speaks to us as does "Little Women".
Jo Ann Carr
Jo Ann Carr Director Center for Instructional Materials & Computing Instructional Media Development Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison
Received on Wed 24 May 2006 01:20:31 PM CDT
