Kid Corner

I had quite a handful of favorite books as a kid, and these are a few of the ones I read and reread. I would like to know yours, also.

The Diary of Anne Frank
There isn't enough I can say about the ways this book shaped a large portion of my life, but it did, so much so that I considered divorcing the husband when he voiced his dislike of the book. There is a maturity and a childishness to Anne Frank that comes across in her words and stories, as well as wit and courage, all of which aided in my decision to start a diary at age ten and to someday be a writer. I don't care who you are, read it. Some things you just need in your life.

The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien
Bottom line, Bilbo Baggins was a BAMF. And I was enamored with the ring. For whatever reason, I couldn't get into The Lord of the Rings, but I read The Hobbit a few times before running into it on my school curriculum.

The Tillerman Series - Cynthia Voigt
I know a lot of people who can't read stories unless they can personally relate to them; not always the case, for me. And I think that's what drew me in about this series - that these kids' lives were so far different from anything I'd ever experienced. Abandoned by their mother and forced to find their own way, I remember how in awe I was of Dicey Tillerman (the oldest, but still a child, herself) and her seemingly natural step into her role as parent to her younger siblings. I knew it surely wasn't something I could handle, but she handled it with courage and maturity. The later books in the series followed the kids' into their adult lives and didn't have the same intensity of the first book, but I'm now trying to track them down, because I think I'd enjoy them more now.

Congo and Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
The thing about Crichton's novels is that as awesome as the movie versions turned out, the books always seemed way better (particularly Jurassic Park and The Lost World). Congo and the JP novels were the only Crichton I read, but I read them many times and appreciated the accessible science thrown in with the story (because I typically need more than just a story, even a good story).