Favorite Books of Childhood
Apr. 5th, 2013 01:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseLast month, Amazon asked a daily question on Facebook. I didn't answer all or even most of them, but the one about "What book influenced you growing up?"/paraphrase has been making me think.
When I was growing up, I used to buy books from the Scholastic catalogue every year. My parents would look over my order and give me the money for them separate from my allowance. They might limit the amount of money or the number of books, but they never once tried to limit what I read. My teachers tried to make the class stay to our own grade level, but they never really succeeded with me. I bought what interested me whether it was several grades above my reading level -- like buying Shakespeare's Scottish Play in fifth grade -- or several grades below it.
The first book from the Scholastic orders that I remember was Peter Pan. I'm sure there were at least a couple of others from that order, but Peter Pan was notable for the evening just before my seventh birthday when I bounded downstairs and said, "Look!" I read a page to myself, and my parents stared and said, "All right, what are we looking at?" and I said, "I don't have to say the words out loud." It was a huge revelation, and I kept that book by my bedside through at least five more years and three moves.
(When I was ten, my father came home one day and said, "Fabi, when did you stop moving your lips when you read?" and I reminded him of my moment three years earlier. Then I wondered why he'd asked. He said, "Because General Westmoreland still does.")
I read the whole Anne of Green Gables series between the ages of seven and eleven; it took so long because some of the books were difficult to find. My favorite of those was Anne of the Island because I loved reading about college.
But the book I fought hardest for was Daddy Long Legs. I bought my first copy from Scholastic in either fourth or fifth grade. I loved it, and re-read it often. My mother has never understood the idea of re-reading. Every year, when we were at summer camp (we started going when I was eleven), my mother would come in and cull our books and toys. Every year, she threw out or gave away Daddy Long Legs, and every year I bought a new copy with my allowance.
Like Anne of the Island, it's set at University. There's a romance in it, but that wasn't what was important to me. It was the first book that really emphasized the social aspect of life for me, even more than the Anne books. It was the first book that, without using the word, explained "privilege" to me. It's written in epistolary form, but the conversation is one way only. We read the bits of Judy that she wants to share with her unknown benefactor, but we also are given a window into status issues for women, class issues within and without the college, and education issues.
This was the first book that gave me a reading list. It may have been over a decade before I tackled Thackeray's Vanity Fair, but I read it because it was mentioned in Daddy Long Legs (ditto Wuthering Heights). There's an entire letter about references to literature and how these bind the girls who understand them culturally. Judy, our protagonist, realizes that she needs to read the books to take her place as an equal within the college.
Unlike Anne's college experiences, Judy's were wrapped up in grades, tests, classes, chapel, and roommates. Anne had housemates and romances, but other than winning a scholarship, we don't read much about her intellectual development. Judy's is front and center in her book.
I found Daddy Long Legs for free at Kindle today. It's time to re-read it.
When I was growing up, I used to buy books from the Scholastic catalogue every year. My parents would look over my order and give me the money for them separate from my allowance. They might limit the amount of money or the number of books, but they never once tried to limit what I read. My teachers tried to make the class stay to our own grade level, but they never really succeeded with me. I bought what interested me whether it was several grades above my reading level -- like buying Shakespeare's Scottish Play in fifth grade -- or several grades below it.
The first book from the Scholastic orders that I remember was Peter Pan. I'm sure there were at least a couple of others from that order, but Peter Pan was notable for the evening just before my seventh birthday when I bounded downstairs and said, "Look!" I read a page to myself, and my parents stared and said, "All right, what are we looking at?" and I said, "I don't have to say the words out loud." It was a huge revelation, and I kept that book by my bedside through at least five more years and three moves.
(When I was ten, my father came home one day and said, "Fabi, when did you stop moving your lips when you read?" and I reminded him of my moment three years earlier. Then I wondered why he'd asked. He said, "Because General Westmoreland still does.")
I read the whole Anne of Green Gables series between the ages of seven and eleven; it took so long because some of the books were difficult to find. My favorite of those was Anne of the Island because I loved reading about college.
But the book I fought hardest for was Daddy Long Legs. I bought my first copy from Scholastic in either fourth or fifth grade. I loved it, and re-read it often. My mother has never understood the idea of re-reading. Every year, when we were at summer camp (we started going when I was eleven), my mother would come in and cull our books and toys. Every year, she threw out or gave away Daddy Long Legs, and every year I bought a new copy with my allowance.
Like Anne of the Island, it's set at University. There's a romance in it, but that wasn't what was important to me. It was the first book that really emphasized the social aspect of life for me, even more than the Anne books. It was the first book that, without using the word, explained "privilege" to me. It's written in epistolary form, but the conversation is one way only. We read the bits of Judy that she wants to share with her unknown benefactor, but we also are given a window into status issues for women, class issues within and without the college, and education issues.
This was the first book that gave me a reading list. It may have been over a decade before I tackled Thackeray's Vanity Fair, but I read it because it was mentioned in Daddy Long Legs (ditto Wuthering Heights). There's an entire letter about references to literature and how these bind the girls who understand them culturally. Judy, our protagonist, realizes that she needs to read the books to take her place as an equal within the college.
Unlike Anne's college experiences, Judy's were wrapped up in grades, tests, classes, chapel, and roommates. Anne had housemates and romances, but other than winning a scholarship, we don't read much about her intellectual development. Judy's is front and center in her book.
I found Daddy Long Legs for free at Kindle today. It's time to re-read it.
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no subject
Date: 2013-04-05 05:53 pm (UTC)I probably should reread it again- it's been a long time.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-06 01:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-05 06:40 pm (UTC)Thanks for reminding me of it!
no subject
Date: 2013-04-06 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-05 07:03 pm (UTC)Like you, I had parents who never limited my reading choices by taste or age-appropriateness. They assumed that if I was interested and felt I could handle the material, that was good enough for them. The last thing they wanted was a bored child on their hands who grew to resent the options available.
Then again, they encouraged me to watch The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R when they appeared on PBS since they knew I was developing a fascination with the Tudors from a couple history books I kept pulling down. I know that most of the kids my age weren't interested in either production, and the couple who were... well, they weren't allowed to watch anything that graphic. There was fairly frank discussion of sex, which, interestingly enough, seemed to bother the parents a LOT more than the pretty darn graphic scenes of torture and execution.
That confused me even then. Hearing Katherine Howard talk about how nice it is to be touched by someone attractive is worse for kids than seeing the results of the 'interrogation' of Mark Smeaton? I don't think so.
But I digress.
There are books I read once and am done with, but there are also books that become my good friends over the years. As with a long and intimate friendship with a person, there can be waxing and waning and periods of disenchantment. But when we need it most, we rediscover their wisdom and comfort. They help us ground ourselves. And so I will always need The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Anne and her friends, The Princess Bride, and even Paddington Bear to help me navigate the world successfully... as well as War and Peace, The Warden, MFK Fisher and so many others.
What's more, I still say I knew Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg well before you turned me onto Discworld. They were my grandmother and my great aunt, respectively. Reading about them felt like getting them back in my life. I can never express my gratitude for that.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-06 01:19 pm (UTC)I'm so happy you love Discworld so much. And, yes, there are books that only need to be read once -- and a very, very few that probably shouldn't be read at all.
I'd be interested in your take on Daddy Long Legs. It's very much a product of its time, but I think it's still a great book for kids to read today.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-07 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-07 10:08 pm (UTC)I think I tried the "Little House" books too late. I should have done it in first grade, but I didn't try them until 4th when I was already reading at a college level.
Maybe now that I'm old enough to appreciate kids' books again, I should retry them.