Author Insight: Memorable Reads

What is the first book you remember reading? Why was it memorable?

"Great question. Hard one. I think the very first book that really struck me as a reader was Lord of the Flies. I read it when I was ten and it's haunted me every since. Not only does it combine my fascination with the sea and deserted isles but even as a kid I got the blunt message of the book. Hits like a hammer and makes a mental wound that never heals." - K. Ryer Breese, author of Future Imperfect. 

"The Worst Witch. I loved that book, I still do. My children love it too. There’s something timeless about it. Mildred Hubble is so relatable, laces undone, hair always askew, getting in trouble; there’s a little bit of Mildred in all of us." - Leigh Fallon, author of The Carrier of the Mark. 

"The Babysitters Club. I was so going to organize my own babysitting business. Turns out I don’t really like taking care of other people’s kids. Ha!" - Elana Johnson, author of Possession. 

"Little House In The Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The Little House books were my favorite as a young girl because I related to Laura even though she lived 100 years before me. Her story took me to a different world and showed me what life was like in our country when there was still so much to explore." - Stephanie Kuehnert, author of Ballads of Suburbia. 

"The first book I remember reading was one of those children’s See Jane Run books. I was so excited that I learned how to read that I couldn’t wait to get in the house to show my mother, so we sat on the front steps and I read the book to her." - Marta Acosta, author of  Haunted Honeymoon.

 

"The first book I remember is a hardcover collection of fairy tales in French that my Dad gave to me. I still have it. I also remember my grandmother reading to me at night from the old hardback Walt Disney fairy tales. I didn’t learn to speak English until I was around 7 years old  so the first English books I fell in love with and bought for myself with my allowance were the Sweet Valley High books when I was eleven." - Alyxandra Harvey, author of Haunting Violet.

 

"I honestly can't remember the first book I ever read, so I guess it wasn't memorable, but it must've been good because I love to read! The earliest book I can remember making an impact on me was a book called T.A. for Tots by Alvyn M. Freed & JoAnn Dick and it reminds me of Feelings by Aliki. Both have wonderful pictures and stories about people's feelings--mine and everybody else's. I'm all about empathy." - Dawn Metcalf, author of Luminous. 

"I remember reading The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein obsessively as a child. I loved that book—still do." - Josephine Angelini, author of Starcrossed. 

"The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. It was memorable because my second grade teacher was reading it aloud to us, and she gave every character their own voice. Also my mother bought me the book so I could follow it as my teacher read it out. It was my first “real” chapter book." - Alison Goodman, author of Eona. 

"I actually remember reading those Dick & Jane easy readers, but I'll skip to... No Flying In The House by Betty Brock. It's the first book I remember picking out of the library by myself." - Leah Cypess, author of Nightspell. 

"As a child, I read the usual suspects– horse books, Little House, dog stories, sad tales of spider woe – but the book that changed everything was Jane Eyre. I read it at ten, and it’s still the Gold Standard for me, a creepy gothic with a dark, mysterious hero, a conflicted heroine, and deep passionate yearning." - Trinity Faegen, author of The Mephisto Covenant. 

Come back Thursday to find out what is the first book the rest of the authors remember reading.