Thursday, April 21, 2011

Question: What was your favorite book growing up?

Norma: Any book with horses. I loved the Marguerite Henry books--especially the illustrations by Wesley Dennis. I still have my King of the Wind, with the book cover intact. I could put myself right on those ponies or horses. However, for cuddling with mom in a big easy chair, it was Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House series) hands down. She was a great reader, and I could also picture myself in Laura's life. Like this author, I didn't own any Wilder books (used the public library in Forreston and Mt. Morris), nor was I a fan of the TV series. It was a wonderful surprise in the 1990s when I was doing my research for publication on women and farm journals to discover her life as a newspaper columnist.
Leave a comment or send an e-mail, and I'll add your favorite (without your name if you prefer).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't remember any books. My mother didn't read to us and there were no books at home.

Dan Nieman said...

Great post! Peter Rabbit was an early favorite. Word is that everyone who visited received an opportunity to read to me. Later on The Hardy Boys series was a favorite. That wass followed by The Chronicles of Narnia. C.S. Lewis remains a favorite to this day.

Anonymous said...

My favorite book along with all those you mentioned was Hitty, the First Hundred Years. My Grandma Gronewold taught me to read before I went to school. She started reading daily chapters from Winnie the Pooh( before the Disney
version) on the porch swing before bedtime. How I loved to spend summers with her on her Oregon farm.

When I taught 3rd grade I went through the whole Wilder series in the year. The kids loved that time slot right after lunch. When I taught 4th grade I always read Treasures in the Snow and Snow
Treasures.
G.

Anonymous said...

My mother read to us as kids at lot...and as my youngest sister is 8 yrs younger and the others sister was/is a "real" reader(four books a week on average)I'd listen to stories two or three times ...some passages I can still recall to memory, not prefectly but close. L. (from another comment)