From: Susan Lempke <slempke>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 13:45:58 -0500

I have many, many books that shaped me into the person I am today. I can see little bits and pieces of them all the time. Some especially important ones were:

The Boxcar Children, the first book I discovered I could read by myself and even find by myself in the school library. I read it over and over.

Cheaper by the Dozen, which left me with the lifelong habit of trying to figure out the "one best way to do anything".

Harriet the Spy, because I loved Harriet herself but really picked up a lot from Ol' Golly's matter-of-fact attitude. Plus Harriet and I shared a love of tomato sandwiches.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe gave me that universal fantasy idea that even people who thought they were absolutely ordinary could turn out to be significant.

There are lots of others but I am out of time, so let me name just one more that isn't a children's book at all. My parents had three collections of New Yorker cartoons, which I spent many hours poring over. I know I learned all sorts of things from them about pacing and nuance and the tension between words and pictures. My favorite to this day is the one with a mother saying to her angelic little curly-haired daughter, "But it's broccoli, dear," and the daughter replying "I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it".
Received on Wed 24 May 2006 01:45:58 PM CDT