Recently I was packing up old books from my younger years to donate to the used bookstore. Okay, I am still young but when I say younger years I mean back when I was in elementary school. Awhile packing up said books I started wondering what would have happened it I hadn’t read those books. Would I still be the person I am today? Would I still love reading? I really don’t know. I just know that my exclusive love for reading started with the Junie B. Jones series.
When I read my first Junie B. Jones book I fell in love. Junie B. was a spunky, down to earth girl who got in a heck of a lot of trouble and had bad grammar. My kindergarten self became best friends with her. I followed her through the worst smelly buses, Valentine’s Day, weddings, and many other things when she was in kindergarten. And then she went into first grade and I still followed her. I made my mother buy so many Junie B. Jones books that it is not even funny. I guess you could say that she was a girl who had a big influence on my life. I don’t know if I would be as in love with reading as I am now if it wasn’t for her. And then there is the Goosebumps series.
I remember that there was a huge library in the elementary school I went to. One day I was browsing through the shelves and found a shelf dedicated
to the Goosebumps series. (Goosebumps is a very long series it does need a shelf all to itself, of course.) I picked a random Goosebumps book off the shelf and started reading. And it sent chills through my body. The light horror that these books gave me appealed to me. The closest thing I have ever gotten to a horror movie at that time was when I snuck behind the couch and watched a Chucky movie with my parents. So I felt very adult to be reading a “horror” series.
Sure, there were tons of other books that I read when I was elementary student but those are the series that really got me into reading and made me hunger for the written word. These were the books that made me read under the covers with a flashlight and learn that reading was a gift to be cherished.
Do you remember which books got you into reading? If so, tell me about them in the comments!
book adoration 