same_sky: (Default)
same_sky ([personal profile] same_sky) wrote2003-07-04 11:35 am

Friday Five

1. What were your favorite childhood stories?
I read a lot of Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary and similar. I really don't remember many stories from my pre-reading days. I seem to recall liking Casper. Then I got into Sweet Valley Twins and then Sweet Valley High, and also the Babysitter's Club. I stopped reading that kind of thing when I was about twelveish.

2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children? There was one, but I don't remember what it was called. There was one that I was fascinated by.. these island people were all getting ready to leave their island for some reason to move somewhere else, and one girl and her younger brother get left behind and they have to fend for themselves.. I believe that the younger brother eventually gets killed by wild dogs, or something. Anyone know what book I'm talking about?

3. Have you reread any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything? I reread Little Women as part of my women's literature type of class my last semester of college and was fascinated by how into it I was when I was young. It's not that I didn't enjoy it as a grown-up, but it was more old-fashioned in language and ideas than I remembered. That's not the type of thing I tend to enjoy now, so it surprised me how much I liked it then.

4. How old were you when you first learned to read? Four.

5. Do you remember the first 'grown-up' book you read? How old were you? I read My Sweet Audrina, by V.C. Andrews, when I was seven. In retrospect, what the heck was my mother thinking to let me read that? I found it laying around.. it belonged to my aunt and I borrowed it. My granny was visiting us (we were living in Columbus GA at the time) and I was reading it and she refused to believe I was actually reading and understanding what I was reading. There was a rhyme near the beginning of the book about the colors coming through the stained glass window, and she thought I just wanted to read it because of that. She started questioning me and I started explaining about the story and stuff. However. I think that it had a stronger influence on me than a book at that age should. It's a somewhat disturbing story involving rape and lies and this little girl believing that her older sister was dead when in fact, she was the sister and everyone was pretending that she had died because of what had happened to her. I think I'd like to read it again, actually.. I read it for the last time in my pre-teen years.. I lost it, or something. I used to love V.C. Andrews, but I stopped reading them after I read the new stuff published after she died due to intense suckage.

[identity profile] gissa.livejournal.com 2003-07-04 08:45 am (UTC)(link)
My daughters read Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary and The Babysitter's club books also. It's funny how each generation has these series that are just part of the reading experience. It seems like My Sweet Audrina was the last V.C. Andrews that I read also. It got kind of stale after the Flowers in the Attic series.

[identity profile] carrieb.livejournal.com 2003-07-04 10:15 am (UTC)(link)
How could I forget about Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary? And the babysitters club. . Eek! My friend and I even started a babysitters club, but we never got a single customer.

I think the book you were talking about is called Island of the Blue Dolphin by Scott O'Dell. I know I've read it and I think that is it.

[identity profile] same-sky.livejournal.com 2003-07-06 11:40 am (UTC)(link)
That sounds familiar. Of course, now that I think of it, I'm not sure it's the best thing a kid could read.

We were going to start a babysitter's club, too, but we kind of didn't have anyone to ask, so we didn't really bother. I wonder how many clubs popped up because of those books? And furthermore, I wonder if any of them actually became profitable?

[identity profile] same-sky.livejournal.com 2003-07-06 11:42 am (UTC)(link)
It makes me wonder what kind of stuff my kids will read. I bought an adult Judy Blume novel the other day at a used book sale. I have no idea what it's like yet, but I just couldn't resist when I saw the name from my childhood pop out at me. :)