Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Great Books Week: Day 2

Today's question from the Great Books Week Blog Tour was a bit more difficult to answer.
When I was a child, my favorite book was… because….
I remember voraciously reading all the books of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (I like the old cover better), Amelia Bedelia, and Madeline. I also loved Carol and Donald Carrick books. Two more memorable reads (perhaps I always knew I was going to be a teacher) are My Teacher Sleeps in School and Miss Nelson is Missing!


I loved them all (still have many of them) and could talk in length about why each one is great, but I decided to share what I think is a lesser-known book (also part of a series).


All-of-a-Kind Family is about a poor, Jewish family living in New York City during the time of World War I. Growing up as one of the few Jewish children in a very small, Protestant town (I was one of two "token Jews" in my school that was called upon to talk about Chanukah each December), it was nice to see my faith and culture reflected in a book. It made me feel more connected somehow. And as an only child, reading about five sisters - their relationships with one another and how they lived - was completely novel to me. So simply put (better late than never), when I was a child, my favorite book was All-of-a-Kind Family because it was the first time I remember seeing someone like me in a book.

What was your favorite?

3 comments:

Yvette said...

When I was a child my favorite book was Where the Wild Things Are. Now they have a movie coming out this month and I can hardly wait to go see it! :)

Ps. When I started card making about 6 months ago EVERYTHING intimidated me and still to this day a lot of things do...and so do cardmakers. I too saw Copics being used everywhere and decided if I was going to purchase markers I wanted the best. (did not want to waste money on something that I knew I would eventually want to replace later) When I first bought them I would just color with them, but was afraid to do too much with them as far as shading/lighting etc. Now I'm starting to inch my way into "blending". I'm a LONG way away from so many users out there, but I will continue to practice practice practice. I love to use them whenever I can even though I'm not good. I like how vibrant the colors are. There are a lot of pro's to them. Sorry for rambling. :)

Bumbles and Fairy-Tales said...

I'm definitely going to look your books up soon!
I've never found a children's book based upon a spanish girl living in the burbs ;) I've come close to one just recently, but it was a teen book... My fave growing up were Amelia Bedelia's and The Boxcar Children! Now that I have my vamp series mostly complete, I want to collect the whole Boxcar series ;)
TFS! and thanks again for all your sweet comments today! :*)

Jenny said...

LOVE IT! I SO need to track down the All-of-a-Kind Family. I don't have any Jewish students that I know of, but it never hurts to read about different cultures and "persuasions". :) I also really want to start a historical fiction unit, and this would fit in PERFECTLY! Share more books with me anytime you think of some!