Books that Inspired You Growing Up

When I think of books that impacted me growing and inspired me in different ways I had to take a moment. Two series that came to mind right away were The Bobbsey Twins (Laura Lee Hope) and Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene). I devoured these series. I also fell in love with Beverly Cleary’s books, Henry Huggins and Ribsy were the best. I was never a Ramona fan though. I read and reread Homer Price and the Doughnut Machine H (Robert McClosky). But my all-time favorite book when I was in 2-3 grade was Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lingren). She was independent, strong, smart, and brave; the best part was, she had bright-red hair like me. No one that I knew had red hair, except for my youngest brother, and the teasing was merciless. Pippi was this wonderful character who knew what she wanted and was able to figure out how to achieve that goal, often with misadventures along the way. As a reader, you never questioned why her parents weren’t there or another adult to make sure she had food, shelter, or that the local village authorities could not take charge of her care. She was my ultimate hero.

When middle school rolled around, books were not clicking with me. I didn’t find anything to interest or engage me. My grandmother some how knew what I would like and read. I remember when she sent me The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juester). I loved the cover and I couldn’t put the book down. I loved Tock who was literally a watchdog and the Humbug. I had never read anything that played with language the way this author was able to accomplish and still engage the reader. For a child whom had struggled with reading, this book was like a key to the kingdom in so many ways. I loved to bring this book out with high school kids and look at the irony developed through play on language.  When Milo gets stuck in the Doldrums and Tock tells him the only way to get out is by thinking and then Tock joins Milo on his journey through Wisdom. The play on words is absolutely incredible. I had 9th graders going back to read this book that they had never heard of previously.

In high school, my grandmother sent me A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith. I fell in love with Francie Nolan and her journey growing up during the early 1900’s in the impoverished working-class neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Brooklyn. The historical elements along with the harsh realities of living in that time period was spellbinding.  The way the author created Francie and had her tell her story connected me to her in a way other books had not.  When I taught high school advanced English classes, I used this book to look at not only character and plot development, but point of view.

My husband knows how much I love children’s literature and my favorite books. One year he had an artist use A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and create an art piece from it. Another year, he gave me an annotated version of The Phantom Tollbooth. I had them in my classroom for years, along with all my Winnie the Pooh Books and stuffed Pooh Bears. My students would ask me about each book, many of them had never heard of them before. Sometimes, curiosity would lead to a book being borrowed!

Are there books that you read when you were younger and share with your kids? Or maybe your students? I’d love to hear about them! In the meantime, I hope that there is a special book that brings you joy when you read it or even remember it.

Cheers to the storyteller in all of us!