HadashiWorld

i was an early reader. both my parents were professional educators, and at one time my mother was an elementary librarian, so i learned to love books at a very young age. there were no limits to how many books i could check out of the library, nor was i ever told that a book i picked was "too old" for me. (no, wait, i take that back; the only time i was prevented from reading something was when i brought home J.D. Salinger's Catcher In The Rye at the age of 8. i have to agree with my mom that i probably was a bit too young for that...) books were a huge source of entertainment, adventure, and conversational topics for me even though i wasn't an introverted kid by any means. i just liked reading.
as i looked around, i was reminded of this Newbery-Medal-Winner reading blitz i went on in elementary school, and continued into junior high, in which i decided i was going to try to read as many awarded books as possible. beyond giving me an SAT-worthy vocabulary, it changed my life.

funny, the first book that jumped out at me was Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins, which i remember not liking very much. that was the only 1960s winner that i didn't do well with; looking around i saw others that i loved: Elizabeth George Speare's The Bronze Bow, Lloyd Alexander's The High King, E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and an all-time classic, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.
i still read a lot of L'Engle's work; she's a wonderfully prolific writer whose fiction and non-fiction both have done much to shape a more thoughtful and complex worldview for me, and continually refreshes the way i grow in my relationship with God. it was that "children's book" that brought me to her, the same way that reading The Chronicles of Narnia brought me to C.S. Lewis, another guiding light into my adulthood. Lloyd Alexander's books, along with Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, gave me a profound taste for the numinous & mysterious, which i suppose is today called "Sci-Fi/Fantasy." but there was no fantasy about what these books taught me; one of my still-favourite book sets is Robin McKinley's twin novels, The Hero and the Crown, and The Blue Sword. i learned from those that you didn't have to be a boy to be a hero; girls were strong and smart too, and that you should never, ever shrink away from adventure.
other books taught other lessons: i learned about death and religion from Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia, racism from Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, and deception and riches from Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game.
i didn't read just Newbery books, though. i was happy to see a whole row of both Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books. there were Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, and lots of Roald Dahl. and who can forget the fantastic The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel M. Pinkwater (who is now a frequent contributor to several NPR shows, much to my adult delight)? the list could go on and on, but alas, i had to sort of pay attention to actually working as opposed to blissfully getting the memory passport stamped.

this experience made me wonder: what books are out there now that will cause this sort of gleeful nostalgia amongst those who are presently still school-age? the no-brainer answer is, of course, J.K. Rowling's juggernaut Harry Potter series. there were literally three full shelves of Harry Potter books where i was sitting, and it made me happy that demand for them must justify the acquisition of so many copies. sure, it's not the world's best-crafted literature, but i think it's highly responsible for keeping a whole generation of television-and-video-game-fed kids from being total illiterate couch potatoes. i mean, when i first picked up the stunning Watership Down by Richard Adams, i was challenged by the librarian as to my ability to read a book of 500+ pages. i doubt any librarian, post-Goblet of Fire, would do that now. if i have children, what books are they going to bring home & devour? what's going to keep them up at night with a flashlight under the covers?

i think i'd like to resume my Newbery challenge and perhaps check out, say, the last five years' worth of awards. i can be a literate couch potato, curl up with a stack of them, and hopefully lose myself in other worlds, times, places, adventures that can still delight and amaze this grown-up little girl.

*note: i figured if i was going to spend so much time linking each title/author i mentioned, i might as well avoid just the amazon.com link whenever possible. this way, if you want to know more about the book itself, you should be taken to a site that's a little more thorough (especially the excellent sparknotes.com). enjoy your travels!