Early Reading
This post is motivated by naked curiosity. I just tracked down and purchased an old copy of The Magic Story Tree. This was one of my favoritest books when I was but yea high. It's a book of fairy tales that are well told and illustrated. The stories made a deep impression, especially the one about the woodpecker and the one about the big dipper.
So this got me thinking of my other old best beloved books from when I *very* first started to read. I still have some of these: Billy and Blaze; Flip; Jenny and the Cat Club; Charles Addam's Mother Goose; Momotaro, Peach Boy; Pua Pua Lena Lena (these last two were more advanced and drew me in because of the illustrations). My dad had a book that collected 100 years of cartoons from Punch, the British magazine. I loved it so much I took it to pre-school with me. I probably didn't understand a word. Oh there were so many more. My first poetry volume came from Childcraft as part of a sort of youngsters encyclopedia set. One volume was full of wonderful poems that children could appreciate. We lost the set in a move. Years later I found the set at a basement bookstore. I bought the whole thing just for that one volume. I paid for the whole set, took the volume I wanted, and gave the rest back to the bookstore. Because I don't need to learn how to make paper machie volcanoes (volume seven).
Care to share your special early readers? Extra points for more obscure titles!
So this got me thinking of my other old best beloved books from when I *very* first started to read. I still have some of these: Billy and Blaze; Flip; Jenny and the Cat Club; Charles Addam's Mother Goose; Momotaro, Peach Boy; Pua Pua Lena Lena (these last two were more advanced and drew me in because of the illustrations). My dad had a book that collected 100 years of cartoons from Punch, the British magazine. I loved it so much I took it to pre-school with me. I probably didn't understand a word. Oh there were so many more. My first poetry volume came from Childcraft as part of a sort of youngsters encyclopedia set. One volume was full of wonderful poems that children could appreciate. We lost the set in a move. Years later I found the set at a basement bookstore. I bought the whole thing just for that one volume. I paid for the whole set, took the volume I wanted, and gave the rest back to the bookstore. Because I don't need to learn how to make paper machie volcanoes (volume seven).
Care to share your special early readers? Extra points for more obscure titles!