Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Reading at the Edge of Memory

Last List-Day Wednesday we looked at restaurants on Valley Mills Dr. here in Waco.  Great suggestions by "Ang."  I keeping overlooking Pei Wei as a dining option... it is now on my near-future lunch list.  
For the Middle Eastern insurgents and snow-bound Midwesterners who follow these posts, I thought a the universal topic of children's literature would be appropriate.  To jog your reticent memory, some classic Persian children stories are: The Sheep and the Jackal; The Camel and the Jackal; The Baby Goat and the Jackal; and The Good & Loving Boy Hassani.  


The topic of this List-Day Wednesday is quasi-autobiograpohical: 
What are your favorite childhood stories or books?


As with any group project, a few rules are needed.  There will be a topic.  As far as the length of the list, I have given this some thought.  A list of One, is not a list.  Two to a list is too harsh: only first and last place.  The minimum entries shall be Three, and Three it shall be.  For the sake of brevity, Five will be the max.


Here is my list:
1) Winnie the Pooh - As I have suggested before, I like maps and 100 Acre Wood may be the source of my map fetish.
2) Bear Story - James Whitcomb Riley.  Now that I have returned to the story as a parent, I am a bit concerned about the violence.  As a child, a bear that slowly gets its legs shot off was very suspenseful.
3) Stuart Little - I had a pet mouse.  My mouse could not drive.
4) Goodnight Gorilla - As a parent reading to a child, this is a newly discovered favorite.  Great illustrations, few words.

3 comments:

  1. 1) Amelia Bedelia - She made me feel like less of a klutz, and I loved the play on words.
    2) Anything by Judy Blume, but especially "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" and "Otherwise Known as Shelia the Great"
    3) Sweet Pickles series - The main characters are animals who live in a town together, and each book features one of them. I especially loved that the inside of each book cover had the Sweet Pickles community map.

    (My list is probably more "middle grade" than "children," but they are the first ones that came to mind.)

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  2. Yes, the maps really help create the imaginary space of the story.
    No "middle school" books stick out in my memory, maybe I didn't read. According to my memory, the next book after Stuart Little was the "Odd Couple" by Neil Simon. Hmm.

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  3. I devoured Choose Your Own Adventure books, too. They are what I remember reading the most, outside of must-reads for school.

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