From: ljm at joimail.com <ljm>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 17:59:11 +0100

I'm a newbie and really enjoying this discussion. I still have the original copy of "Jane Eyre" that I read back in July of
'81. I was a sullen teen and really identified with all the drama. I hadn't seen the movie version and didn't even know it existed. I remember my mortification when Jane & Helen's long locks were forcibly removed (I too had really long hair). I cried when Helen died and cursed Mr. Brocklehurst for his stinginess! It was my first look into how religion can be used in a hateful way to make a person feel small and dirty. I identified with Jane's self doubt and the idea that she was plain and unwanted. But most of all, it was romance. Mr. Rochester was so much older than Jane, so sophisticated, rugged and mysterious! Adele even stole my heart, as (at the time) she was everything I wished I had been! Thanks for giving me the excuse to drag it off the shelf. So many movie versions have been made since then....maybe I'll read it again, as I remember, the book was much better!


> [Original Message]
> From: <ccbc-net-request at ccbc.education.wisc.edu>
> To: <ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu>
> Date: 5/24/2006 8:53:51 PM
> Subject: CCBC-Net Digest, Vol 10, Issue 37
>
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: [CCBC Net] - What books changed your life? (Jo Ann Carr)
> 2. Re: Life-changing books (Vicki Cobb)
> 3. Beloved stories (Kerry Madden)
> 4. Life-changing books -- THE BOOK OF THREE (Erzsi Deak)
> 5. Re: Books (Ryan, Pat)
> 6. Books that mattered (Peggy Ransom)
> 7. Re: Life-changing books (Susan Lempke)
> 8. The Forgotten Door (fondrie at gmail.com)
> 9. Re: A little off-topic (Ryan, Pat)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 13:20:31 -0500
> From: "Jo Ann Carr" <carr at education.wisc.edu>
> Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] [CCBC Net] - What books changed your life?
> To: <CCBC-Net at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu>
> Message-ID: <44745D9F0200000700277480 at pop.education.wisc.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 14:20:33 -0400
> From: "Vicki Cobb" <vicki.cobb2 at verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Life-changing books
> To: <ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu>
> Message-ID: <000701c67f5e$bfb80780$6401a8c0 at cobb>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> My father started reading The Secret Garden to me when I was eight. I was
> so terrified that Mary would get into trouble for trespassing that I made
> him stop. I decided, when I was ten, that I must face my fears and I read
> that book on my own. I learned about having courage from that experience.
> Many years later, when I was a judge for the Golden Kite Award, a newly
> illustrated version of The Secret Garden arrived at my doorstep. I had
just
> returned from a visit to Yorkshire. I was amazed, as I reread the book,
how
> muchYorkshire dialect was in the text. It had made no impression on me
as a
> child, I was so consumed by the story.
>
> I think we underestimate the intellectual powers of children and their
> ability to accept as given a world foreign to their own.
> Vicki Cobb
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <balkinbuddies at aol.com>
> To: <ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 2:03 PM
> Subject: [CCBC-Net] Life-changing books
>
>
> > As a child, I didn't read a lot of children's books. I was shy and my
> mother wanted me to "get my nose out of books" and go out and make
friends.
> She never censored what I read, she just wanted me to read less and have
> more of a social life. By the time I came along, my parents didn't read
much
> anymore. At one time, they did, though. Before television, there was
radio.
> But before radio, they read books.
> >
> > My first life-changing book was Wuthering Heights. I discovered it one
day
> when I was 8 or 9 years old in an old sheet-draped bookcase in our dusty,
> unfinished attic. No kidding. I really did. The bookcase was filled with
old
> books my parents had forgotten about. All the books were yellowing
> paperbacks from the 1930s, and the cover of Wuthering Heights featured a
> cruelly handsome Heathcliff bending over a pretite blond Catherine. What I
> loved about Wuthering Heights was its connectedness to the past. There
was a
> short bio of Emily Bronte on the first page, and the fact that she wrote
it
> in the 1800s, combined with the intriguing characters and setting, made me
> feel like I was eavesdropping on the past. Reading it at that age was hard
> going. I didn't understand a lot of the words and even my dictionary
failed
> me at times, especially the parts that were written in dialect. But I
really
> enjoyed it -- the intense emotions, the life and death struggles -- these
> were so powerful. S
> > o I was pretty persistent. I read it every year for years, well into my
> teens, and liked it better each year. There were othe books in that old
> bookcase -- books by Erle Stanley Gardner, Agatha Christie, Jane Austen,
> Oscar Wilde -- all my parents' ancient cast offs. And I sampled those too.
> My teachers didn't like seeing me with them. I guess they thought they
were
> too violent or too adult. So I became even more of a sneak reader. To this
> day, I still like trash as much as great literature.
> >
> > My second life-changing book was The Effects of Gamma Rays on
> Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. It was the first play I ever read, so of
course,
> I had to try writing one of my own. It was hard, though, and more than
> anything I wanted to meet Paul Zindel and ask him a thousand questions
about
> playwrighting. I got that chance many years later when I was working at
> HarperCollins, setting up author appearances. Paul was a lovely person and
> we came to be good friends. I still miss him, but I have some wonderful
> memories. He was a good hero to have in my life.
> >
> > It's amazing how far a couple of books can carry you, all the way to the
> offices of a New York publisher and beyond. When I look back at where I
came
> from, I see my Buffalo neighborhood haunted by the playmates I rarely
played
> with, many of whom ended up in jail, on drugs, as unwed parents without
> jobs, or dead. And whenever I feel my successes in life have been too
few, I
> remember that world and know that my ticket out of it was Emily Bronte and
> Paul Zindel.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Arthur Slade <arthur.slade at gmail.com>
> > To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> > Sent: Wed, 24 May 2006 10:26:52 -0500
> > Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Life-changing books
> >
> >
> > The book that changed me was THE BOOK OF THREE by Lloyd Alexander. I
> > went to school in a small town (pop. 280) and our school's library
> > seemed to be made up mostly of Hardy Boys mysteries, donated
> > encyclopedias, and westerns. Somewhere in all of that was a hardcover
> > copy of THE BOOK OF THREE. I read it for the first time when I was in
> > grade four and it felt as though my mind was expanding. It was the
> > first fantasy book I'd encountered. I didn't know authors could write
> > about other worlds. Other times. And that pig keepers could be so
> > interesting. I can still picture where it was located on the shelf (of
> > a library that has long since been torn down). Twenty years after I
> > graduated, I was able to buy that very same copy when the library had
> > a sale. According to the library card I was the first ever to take
> > that book out. In fact I took it out a total of four times. I was also
> > the last to take it out. No one had signed it out since I left school.
> >
> > Arthur Slade
> >
> > --
> > ___________________________
> > **Art's Podcast: Writing for YA _at_ http://www.arthurslade.com
> > **Monsterology Tundra/Random House (out now)
> > **Megiddo's Shadow HarperCanada/Wendy Lamb Books (Fall '06)
> > _______________________________________________
> > CCBC-Net mailing list
> > CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> > Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> > http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
> > _______________________________________________
> > CCBC-Net mailing list
> > CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> > Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> > http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
> >
> >
> > --
> > No virus found in this incoming message.
> > Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.7.0/346 - Release Date: 5/23/2006
> >
> >
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 11:29:57 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Kerry Madden <kiffnkerry at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: [CCBC-Net] Beloved stories
> To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> Message-ID: <20060524182957.21294.qmail at web81712.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Without a doubt, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN...Francie Nolan helped me
through many lonely days each time I faced another move to a new football team/town where my father coached. I escaped into 1911 Brooklyn and into Francie's stories - of Katie Nolan, her hardworking mother, (who loved Francie's brother, Neely, more) Johnny Nolan, her beloved father, her Aunts Evie and Sissy...Betty Smith helped me to feel less alone.
>
> What a great thread...now I will have to go find "Mountain Laurel" too.
>
> Sincerely
> Kerry Madden
> www.kerrymadden.com
> www.readerville.com
> Gentle's Holler, Viking Children's Books, 2005
> Louisiana's Song, 2007, Jessie's Mountain, 2008, Viking...
> Offsides (William Morrow, 1996) Writing Smarts (American Girl Library,
2002)
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 20:34:55 +0200
> From: Erzsi Deak <erzsi at kidbookpros.com>
> Subject: [CCBC-Net] Life-changing books -- THE BOOK OF THREE
> To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> Message-ID: <B49A2123-8B35-4FEE-8F41-536C9924E2E0 at kidbookpros.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; delsp=yes; format=flowed
>
> I'm so glad you mentioned THE BOOK OF THREE, Arthur. I think about it
> often. But I didn't find it until about 7 years ago, long after any
> formal education and long after the "end" of childhood, if-you-like.
> As it did for you, it opened the door to fantasy for me (that I'd
> shunned when younger). I love the first line and straight on through.
> And it still makes me smile when I think of it -- and how much I
> laughed and thought what a gentle magician Lloyd Alexander is. For a
> long while it's been missing from it's place next to the rest of the
> the Chronicles of Prydain series collected on my bookshelf; I finally
> ordered a copy from an English-language bookshop here in Paris last
> week. I can't wait to read it again.
>
> Erzsi
>
> ---------------------------
> Erzsi De?k
> www.erzsideak.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 11:37:02 -0700
> From: "Ryan, Pat" <PRyan at aclibrary.org>
> Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Books
> To: "Ruth I. Gordon" <Druthgo at sonic.net>, "CCBC Net"
> <ccbc-net at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu>
> Message-ID:
> <B5B11B26733B3A4E9F67AF092F4CAA850105EA22 at LETTERMAN.ACLIBRARY.ORG>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> I don't ever remember my parents or teachers reading aloud. We always
> had books, and we always read. I remember having numerous different
> editions of Cinderella; we would stop on the way home from church and
> spend our allowance at the dime store, probably on Golden Books. I would
> lie on the floor and read the newspaper, when I was four. And to this
> day I can't sit down without having something to read, whether I'm
> working, watching TV or listening to music. I even listen to books on CD
> while driving.
>
> When I was eight the Bookmobile would come, weekly I think, and I'd
> always go to load up on books. I would pick up my mother's latest
> mystery, Agatha Christie or Ngaio Marsh or Erle Stanley Gardner, then
> work my way through whatever I was interested in at the time -
> mysteries, horse stories, or whichever author had lots of titles. And
> thank goodness the local library marked their books with genre stickers,
> because I was completely incapable of asking for help. Every once in a
> while a friendly librarian would offer me something, and I'd be shocked
> that they'd noticed me.
>
> When I was about nine a neighbor gave me her girlhood copy of Rose in
> Bloom. She said none of her kids read and she was happy to pass it along
> to a reader. I had that book until I got married and my parents got rid
> of everything; I have another copy now but wish I still had the one that
> someone actually gave to ME. My interests were wide and I loved most all
> of it, from Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden to Louisa May Alcott and Jane
> Austen. I loved the Farley books, especially that crossover fantasy
> title, The Island Stallion Races.
>
> When I was in my midteens my new brother-in-law generously shared his
> extensive collection of science fiction and I read all the classics.
>
> And thanks again so very much for all the Holocaust literature
> recommendations; I'm working my way through them and - while I can't say
> I'm enjoying them I am so glad to have read them.
>
> Patricia Ryan, Children's Librarian
> Union City Library
> 510-745-1464 ext. 19
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 14:38:43 -0400
> From: Peggy Ransom <pransom at quan.lib.md.us>
> Subject: [CCBC-Net] Books that mattered
> To: ccbc-net at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu
> Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.0.20060524121719.01aa9350 at quan.lib.md.us>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
> As a child in the 50s, I haunted the Baxter Memorial Library in
> Gorham, Maine. The Lang "color" fairy tale books were early
> favorites. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series and Lucy Maud
> Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series provided positive feminine
> role models that I didn't see in "Dick and Jane" readers or the girl
> books recommended by my teachers. They were very influential and are
> still my best loved books. But the one life changing book that I
> found in those long ago days was Peggy Drives the Bookmobile. (Anyone
> else know this book?) I haven't a clue who wrote it, haven't seen it
> for decades and would probably condemn it as dreck today. It was
> still a critical influence on my future career. Some of my happiest
> library memories involve service to children who wouldn't have had
> books without the bookmobile.
>
>
> Peggy Ransom, Branch Librarian
> Queen Annes County Free Library - Kent Island
> 200 Library Circle
> Stevensville, MD 21666
> 410-643-8161
> 410-643-7098 (Fax)
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 13:45:58 -0500
> From: "Susan Lempke" <slempke at nileslibrary.org>
> Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Life-changing books
> To: <ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu>
> Message-ID:
> <DCAF14144AADC841B6E5853280590B24A464E4 at bart.staff.npld.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> 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".
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 8
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 14:08:57 -0500
> From: fondrie at gmail.com
> Subject: [CCBC-Net] The Forgotten Door
> To: CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> Message-ID:
> <9e7effa00605241208y3d91a2cdrbbfcda8fc842cd41 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> The first book truly to show me another way of thinking or of living was
The
> Forgotten Door (1965), by Alexander Key (also Escape to Witch Mountain).
The
> main character crosses over to Earth from another planet, one without war,
> harm, pain, lies, or any other artifice impossible in a society of mind
> readers. He's appalled and disturbed by the violence he encounters,
directed
> both at him and the family who helps him. It's utterly foreign to him.
>
> In the early to mid-'70's, that was a pretty amazing concept to me, and
I've
> never forgotten that a peaceful, cooperative society like that could
> exist...somewhere. If not in reality, then in people's ways of living, and
> that's more important today than ever before.
>
> Sue Fondrie
> UW-Oshkosh
> Curriculum & Instruction
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 9
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 12:52:51 -0700
> From: "Ryan, Pat" <PRyan at aclibrary.org>
> Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] A little off-topic
> To: "Connie Rockman" <connie.rock at snet.net>, "CCBC-NET ccbc-net"
> <ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu>
> Message-ID:
> <B5B11B26733B3A4E9F67AF092F4CAA850DBD83 at LETTERMAN.ACLIBRARY.ORG>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Thank you for this timely mention! It's on our current order list - and
I'm getting it!
>
> Patricia Ryan, Children's Librarian
> Union City Library
> 510-745-1464 ext. 19
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu on behalf of Connie Rockman
> Sent: Wed 5/24/2006 7:46 AM
> To: CCBC-NET ccbc-net
> Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] A little off-topic
>
>
>
> Did anyone else notice that our own Leda Schubert's wonderful new
> picture book - Ballet of the Elephants - was mentioned in the "Editor's
> Choice" section of the NYT Bestseller List last Sunday? - Not the
> Children's Bestseller list, but the august adult list, the same list
> that banished the Harry Potter books when they took too many slots away
> from "adult" writers.
> Way to go, Leda - and Robert Andrew Parker - and Roaring Brook Press!!!
>
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
>
>
> End of CCBC-Net Digest, Vol 10, Issue 37
> ****************************************
Received on Thu 25 May 2006 11:59:11 AM CDT