As I think back on my childhood several small books come to my mind such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Little Engine That Could, Amelia Badelia, and so forth. Growing up. I had a vast book collection, so I cannot exactly recall the first book I ever read or was read to me. My mother would read to me daily because she and my father strongly encouraged literacy. I was very skilled in reading and writing, at a young age. Whenever I would start a book, I would simply become bored and forget to finish reading it. I guess I could say, I had the attention span of a goldfish. However, there is one book that I remember clearly and that I am very proud to say I read thoroughly. I was in the fifth grade, and I met the end of the year Accelerated Reader criteria. On my personal time, I decided to read a book called, The Secret Garden, and it was my very first chapter book other than the Goosebumps series. In order to get extra credit the teacher allowed us to write an essay on a book of our choice as long as the book was on our reading level. The Secret Garden was without a doubt the most exciting book, and it could tap into my imagination and kept me guessing all the way through. The Secret Garden was mainly about a little girl who lost both of her parents due to an earthquake, so she moves in with her uncle who is very distant towards everyone. She undergoes a lot of hardships in her time. The little girl grew bored of her lonely room, and she began to explore the estate. Much to her surprise, she came across a secret garden that had been locked away and had been hidden by shrubbery. The little girl also had an ill cousin who was afraid of life as a whole. Her cousin would often times go out into the yard with her (from what I can remember). The little girl fixed the garden to her liking and basically, in the end, everyone was happy. The book was written where that it could lock the reader in and make them imagine that they were one with the little girl. As a child, a book that could tap into emotions was pretty much a well written book.
