My favorite books when I was little aren't your typical classics. A Rose For Pinkerton by Steven Kellogg, Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Wadell, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, And The Bug Hungry Bear by Don Wood, and Who Wants Arthur? by Amanda Graham. I LOVE these books to this day and always will. My mom didn't even read the typical Cinderella to me, instead she read Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe. My mom did take the repetitive refrain from Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and added a tune so she could sing it to me and my siblings. Diversity, self concept, and dogs have been big themes for my mom to teach her kids (who am I kidding?! To teach ALL) since I was little.
As I grew, my interests changed…
I remember having my thirst for the next Goosebumps always quenched. I had to have my scary stories like Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. This turned into a desire for Fear Street or anything by Lois Duncan and Caroline B. Cooney. My mom jokes now that she's surprised I turned out so normal considering the genre that took over my formative years. In fact, I think one of the only realistic fiction series I liked was Anne of Green Gables (gotta love that red head!). Though, nowadays I have expanded my reading repertoire to include all different genres within children's and young adult literature.
My favorites to read to Ashley: I had a big thing for books that had beautiful illustrations as well as a good story.
ReplyDeleteAnimalia by Graham Base
Eloise Series
The Leaf Men & The Brave Good Bugs by Joyce
Play with me
Stellaluna
Verdi
I also read a lot of books that involved poetry and song and taught her the Poem "I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree" by Joyce Kilmer. :-) She used to sit in her high chair and recite it with hand motions. Very cute.