Recent news of the upcoming film adaption of Lois Lowry’s The Giver has led me, on this beautiful Tuesday afternoon, to reflect on some of my favorite books growing up! I’m compiling a list of all that I can remember in my journal right now, hopefully so I can one day look back and purchase these books in shiny new editions for my own children. An absolute favorite of mine was Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine - but don’t even get me started on that God-awful Anne Hathaway movie with the same title, haha. I remember being so enthralled with this book, absolutely hooked until the very end, which left a sweet, romantic aftertaste. Reading up on the author now, I’ve found out Ella Enchanted’s success allowed Levine to quit her day job as a government worker and pursue writing full-time, which sort of makes my heart melt with happiness.

I have really fantastic memories of books read in fourth and fifth grade English (Language Arts? Reading?) classes, such as Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, and The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Around that time as well I read Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher, the first book to ever make me cry. At a younger age, some of my favorites were Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein; Corduroy, Don Freeman; Love You Forever, Robert Munsch; Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Louis Sachar; and Strega Nona, by Tommie De Paola.

Thinking about books I read as a child has some sort of feeling of magic that comes along with it - it’s something difficult to describe, something like feathers in your stomach or a sip of hot chocolate. Did anyone else read and love the same books I did? And what were your other favorites?