I grew up on a lot of books. My family believed that reading a ton of books would make me super smart or something. Unfortunately, I don’t even remember reading half of them. Short-term memory sucks. So I got a little nervous when this assignment was given because there was no way I was going to remember enough of the first book I read to write a paper. I don’t even remember what the name of it is, only that it was like a story about Christmas and it showed the same picture of Santa Claus on his sleigh on about 5 pages in different colors. The earliest book I can recall at least the title of was one of those little My First Bibles, I think. Even then I only remember a yellow plastic cover, cardboard pages, and the stories of Adam and Eve and the Tower of Babel. That’s pretty much it. Thankfully, we’re allowed can talk about a memorable book from later in life. For me, that is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The entire series is amazing but this one stood out the most for me. The first thing is that it was the final book in the series and I remember being super excited to read it. If I remember correctly, I only had to mention it once since my family knew from past experiences that I was going to bug them till they bought it. The second thing that made this book so memorable was the deaths. The series is no stranger to death and I still remember all of the other deaths vividly, but the deaths in this one were so devastating. I mean Hedwig was the very first death! The little bird that the entire fandom had come to love bit the dust because she protected Harry! I was not prepared for that when I first read the book. Then the deaths kept coming. Moody dies not long after Hedwig, then the Minister of Magic (whom I may add, I at least hadn’t heard of until the book just before this one) is killed at a wedding, and even Dobby is murdered by my favorite villain, Bellatrix! That was disturbing to say the least. When I learned Fred (or was it George), Tonks, and Lupin died as well I had to put the book down for weeks. That’s when I realized even my favorite characters could be killed in stories, which makes me wonder why I’m still so upset about the last Game of Thrones episode.

Adrian Cherry

From what I can remember, the book that really brings me back to my child hood is “Guess how much I love you” by Anita Jeram. I was too young to read at this time but I remember just about everyone in my house reading it to me but especially my dad. It was my favorite book because it was about a young hare and his daddy. I was a complete daddy’s girls growing up, being the youngest of four (two boys and two girls) it was really special to me to get time to read with my dad. I would picture myself being the little hare and of course my dad being the big hare. My parents were divorced so even when I was not staying at my dad’s I knew how much he loved me because he told me so. He would buy me books from the school book fair growing up and take me to the big book store in town with my siblings as we all got older. My dad always encouraged me to read and to be smart. He always said that “pretty girls don’t need to fake smart they need to be smart”. This really impacted me through my years of school but now that I am older I can really look back on how thankful I am for his guidance in my younger years. My love for learning, reading and exploring this world came from him. If I did not have the opportunity to be read “Guess how much I love you”, I might not have fallen in love with literature and wouldn’t have the desire to become an educator. No matter how simple Jeram’s book is, it impacted my life and is a part of very special memories with my dad.

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.

First Memory of Children’s Book

The first memory of a book that was read to me would be Dr. Seuss “Green Eggs and Ham”. This book was very popular in my pre-k class especially during story time. I remember this book having a red hardcover back. My teacher would read it to us and pass it around so everyone could touch it. The colors in this book made it interesting to see as a child. Also, the words made it hard for me to imagine someone actually eating green eggs. Then, one day when my teacher was reading the book my classmates and I had the opportunity of trying green eggs. There were so many students against the idea of eating something green. My teacher explained to us that the flavor of the eggs would still be the same. So, I tried them and went home telling my mom that they were so delicious.

Another memory of reading this book was exploring more of Dr. Seuss books. My pre-k class read other books by him as well. I really enjoyed “Oh the Places You’ll Go” and “One fish two fish red fish blue fish” these two books were exciting and colorful as well. My mother worked at a daycare and would babysit a lot of my younger cousins and I always remembered her reading Dr. Seuss books. I feel like Dr. Seuss books made me enjoy reading books. His stories were so unique and adventurous that I wanted to read them over and over again. The memory of these books lead me and my siblings to making up fantasy games for us to play outside. It also made reading fun and we took several trips to the library.  Overall, reading was entertaining and memorable because of Dr. Seuss books for me as a child.

Aside from the children’s books read to me from my parents before the start of elementary school, the most memorable book ever read to me was on my first, uncertain day of kindergarten. I went to Huddleston Elementary School in Peachtree City, Ga – a few blocks away from my home. I was close enough to the school that the bus route had a stop right in front of my house for my two older brothers, four weird-looking neighborhood kids, and me. I remember standing at the bus stop that dark, musk morning of the first day of school with the whole neighborhood gang, anxious to ride the bus for the first time. I was standing in the front of the line with my right hand in dad’s hand and my left hand in mom’s. As the bus pulled up in front of us and screeched to a stop, I remember pushing myself toward the back of the line with tears running down my face. I wasn’t ready for the first day of school.

Somehow I ended up in the car with my dad in the driver’s seat, my mom in the passenger seat, and me in the back – alone. My brothers rode off to school in the ugly yellow bus as I was chauffeured. As we walked into class, my parents helped me to get settled in and acquainted with my teachers. I clearly remember one of the first activities of the day was Ms. Nashky leading the class to the circle carpet for story time. She explained to us how we were going to meet a friend that was going to journey with us through our first year of elementary school. She began to talk about the fears and the concerns we may have had on our way to school that morning, especially about the school bus, and how our new friend was feeling the same way. She said she would introduce this new friend to us, and help us become familiar with her. Then by the middle of the school year, Ms. Nashky was going to let us read about our new friend on our own. After her introduction, she pulls from behind her back, “Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus.”

From that day, throughout my entire first year of kindergarten, I became best friends with Junie B. Jones. I collected every single book, both in English and a few in Spanish, even though I wasn’t at all bilingual. I felt so much a part of Junie B. Jones that I almost thought I was Junie B. Jones. As Ms. Nashky told us before we met her, she would have the same thoughts and feelings of school as we would. And to my surprise, our concerns were almost identical. From this book series, I gained a great fascination with many other book series that carried on my love for reading all throughout both elementary and middle school. I looked for comfort in book series where I could relate my thoughts and feelings the best. Moreover, it wasn’t necessarily the books themselves that linger in my memory like, “Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus,” but it was the characters; it was Junie B. Jones I remember. I was more grateful for her and the book’s characters than the actual plots of the books themselves, for it was my ability to identify myself through these characters that got me through my childhood and early teenage years.

I feel like the book that had a huge influence on me during my childhood is Rainbow Fish. My mom was an avid reader, so she always made sure me and my sister read a lot as children. Every night, she would ask me what book I would like to read. My mom said every night I would choose Rainbow Fish. The cover was my favorite thing to look at. His scales were so shiny. Even the textures of his shiny scales were smooth.

The story is about a fish that has very unique shiny scales. Every day he would swim by and all the fish would gawk at his beauty. One day a small blue fish asked him for one of his shiny scales. Rainbow fish told the little blue fish to leave him alone. The small fish swam away. He told all the other fish what Rainbow fish said. The next day when he swam pass them, they ignored him. He realized no one wanted to deal with him. He wandered what he could do to get his friends back. A starfish tells him he should go see the wise octopus in his cave.

Rainbow fish went to the octopus and told him the dilemma. The octopus told him to give away his scales so he could get his friends back. The small blue fish came back and asked for a tiny scale, so he gave him one. Next thing you know, every other fish wanted one too. Rainbow fish gave away his shiny scales and received friendship. As a child, I sort of realized the moral of the story but I mainly paid attention to the images. I think the lesson from the book comes across clearly. When I reread it again, it was still as enjoyable, especially the images.

Virtually every night of my childhood, my mother would read my sister and me a book (or two) before bed. We had a lot of different picture books when I was growing up, but I still remember that the first book I read on my own was Green Eggs and Ham by the great Seuss. I must have been either three or four at the time, and I was all alone in my room on a cloudy day when it happened. I remember feeling really proud, even independent as I made my way through the whole book without any trouble.

Thinking about this incident for the first time in a while, I realize that this was most likely a case of pure memorization. Not only had my mom read that book to me countless times, but I even had an interactive storybook computer game of it. By the time I read the book on my own, there is a good chance that I’d memorized it from those sources alone.

But that only illustrates two points. First, that memorization is a starting point from which a person can start to really comprehend. I was too young to make much sense of language, but the frequent exposure I had to it through reading made the learning process much easier. Second, I learned to read so rapidly because I loved books, and I surely couldn’t have gotten there at such a young age without the fascination with both pictures and words my parents encouraged every time they read to me. As a poetry major who draws constantly and often flirts with the idea of making picture books instead of going to grad school, I can say that this fascination has never left me, and still colors much of my interaction with the world. While I wouldn’t say that reading Green Eggs and Ham on my own was the moment that I realized my true purpose, the factors behind that moment definitely shaped me, and they continue to show their influence.

My childhood was like many others; I grew up with a loving family in a suburban neighborhood and went to one of the best public schools in the district. With that being said, I know when I was younger my parents or siblings read aloud to me but I can’t recall any books that stand out besides Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes, The Little Engine That Could, etc. Although I do recall the first book I was able to read on my own. When I was in kindergarten the elementary school I went to didn’t teach kindergartners how to read. Sure we learned our ABC’s, colors, and whatever else a kindergartner learns, but we were never taught to read. My kindergarten teacher was amazing and I do remember her always singing to us while giving us several different story times throughout the day. After I finished kindergarten, my family moved to a different county and I had to switch schools. Once I started first grade I was tremendously behind, because I didn’t know how to read. Most of the first graders in my class were able to read basic children’s books by Dr. Seuss and books about Clifford the Big Red Dog. When my teacher and family realized that I wasn’t keeping up with the class I was put into a reading program through my elementary school. During this program I would meet with a high school senior about twice week during school for about one hour to practice my reading. I was in this program for a semester until I was able to read. When I “graduated” the program there was a ceremony for all the students who participated as well as their tutors. My tutor, Erin, gave me the first book I ever received as a gift. The book was called Babette by Clare Turlay Newberry. Babette is a story about a little Siamese kitten that gets lost from her actual home. A little girl ends up finding Babette and gives her a loving home until her real owners claim her. Although the little girl ends up giving Babette back that doesn’t end their loving friendship that was created. The little girl gets to see Babette grow up with time. I absolutely loved this book when I was younger especially because I had a slight obsession with Siamese cats back then. I would read it every night before I went to “bed” and I would always carry it around with me. This book is very fond to me not only because of the cute illustrations and that it’s well written, but because this is the first book I learned to read on my own.

-Ilyanna Yates

Listening to books being read has been a critical part of my literacy narrative. From my parents reading picture books to me, to enjoying audiobooks as an adult, being read to has been a staple in my enjoyment of the world of literature. I even spent a number of years in early middle school listening to the Harry Potter books on tape, as they help to rid me of the night terrors I dealt with at the time. The activity has a certain level of comfort to it that I believe many of us that have grown up with this shared experience might identify with.

I have also found that I get a great deal of pleasure from reading aloud to other people. I believe this stems from the time my brother read The Hobbit to me. While I am sure it was not the first time a book had been read to me, it was one of the first times that someone had read me a story of such length and maturity. My brother, a high schooler at the time, would offer to read to me after dinner, before I went to bed. We would climb the steps to the top floor of our house, where he had annexed himself out of what I can only imagine was teenage angst and a desire to be left alone, and sit on the floor of his room where he would crack open an old copy of the text. I still have that same copy of the book somewhere—battered and dog eared, the binding coming loose and a piece of construction paper wrapped around it as a replacement for its long lost cover.

I suspect that his stint in the theater department at his high school played a role in his desires, but that experience remains one of my cherished memories of our brotherhood. He gave each of the characters a unique voice, inflecting as that would, coming to life through his words. Though I knew the story from the animated movie, listening to the book was somehow so much more enchanting. My mother would go on to read me the first three Harry Potter books, but reading The Hobbit with my brother was one of the more memorable literacy events of my life.

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.