The first book that I can recall being read to me was Alice Nizzy Nazzy when I was around three or four years old. It is a children’s book about a witch who lives in Santa Fe who likes to eat children. A girl named Manuela goes looking for her lost sheep and ends up at the witch’s house having to escape or be eaten. There were some pretty spooky images in this book, especially as I was so young while looking at the pictures and what I remember most about hearing this book for the first time was being a little scared.  Manuela eventually manages an escape from the evil witch as she was a model child which I remember alleviated much of my fright (and maybe even behaved a bit better after realizing that bad children get eaten by witches).

As for the first book I can remember reading, and really loving as well, was The BFG by Roald Dahl. An odd coincidence is that this book, like Alice Nizzy Nazzy, also focuses on people who eat children.  The BFG, and Roald Dahl’s works in general, were some of the early texts that really sparked my interest in reading as youngster. I went on to read essentially every Roald Dahl book two or three time at least, The Twits and Fantastic Mr. Fox being my other two favorites. The way that Quentin Blake’s playful watercolor sketches were included made these books all the better to read at a young age. After looking back upon some of my first reading experiences, I would have to say that my first memories of reading, as opposed to being read to, are a bit more fond and one of the main reasons I have enjoyed reading my whole life.