To this day, I can close my eyes and visualize exactly where the bookshelf was in both my Kindergarten and first grade classrooms. Similarly, I can remember the exact layout, down to the silly pump-you-up for reading posters, of the library housed in my elementary school. I spent so much time pouring over the books contained therein.
Does anyone else feel this way?
 My first love. |
I first met Behind the Attic Wall the summer before second grade. I think it was my first official chapter book. It felt solid in my little hands. I opened it up and never looked back. The story consumed me. It kept me up nights, way past bedtime, under my covers with a flashlight.
I was a reader before I crossed paths with Behind the Attic Wall, but this book changed the game for me.
It made me fall in love with reading.
I re-read Behind the Attic Wall every single year through middle school. Later, I would read it every few years, most recently this summer. Every time I open its cover, I am transported back in time and I can remember what it felt like, as a little second grader, to fall in love with my first book.
Do you have a Behind the Attic Wall equivalent? Please share it here!
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How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
~Henry David Thoreau, Walden
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*FTC Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Basically, if you click on these links and make a purchase, I will receive small commission (we’re talking cents, not dollars). I would never endorse a product for a few cents. We recommend what we love here, folks.
Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley
Cait co-hosts The Homeschool Sisters Podcast and is co-founder of Raising Poppies, a community for parents of gifted and twice-exceptional children. Cait is also founder of the Family Book Club at My Little Poppies, a fantastic community of book-loving parents and the Gameschool Community at My Little Poppies, a vibrant community of gameschoolers.
Cait is a contributing writer for Simple Homeschool and GeekMom. Her work has also appeared on The Huffington Post, The Mighty, and Scary Mommy. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram
and G+.
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I loved the Chronicles of Prydain books, The Borrowers, The Hobbit, Anne of Green Gables, all of the usual suspects. One book that I haven’t heard many people talk about was called House of Stairs. I was haunted by that book in the best kind of way.
Anne of Green Gables was an obsession of mine for years. In fact, Anne with an E, used to be one of my many pretend friends as a child (imaginational OE anyone?). I’ve yet to read House of Stairs or Chronicles of Prydain. Will check them out!
I’m torn between two. One is Jackaroo, by Cynthia Voight which is young adult book set in a vaguely medieval setting. The other is The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas. Both feature characters who have a strong sense of justice and are unable to fit into society because of that.
Haven’t read either of these… thanks for sharing!
I love these responses, and will be checking out the books that I have yet to read 🙂