For awhile now I have been trying to remember the title of the books I used to love to checkout of the Manoa Elementary School Library. Usually the thought comes in passing, and I always forget to write myself a note to do some online research. In fact, all I have ever been able to remember was that the main character's name was Betsy, and that there was an entire series about her.
Tonight, the mystery has been solved thanks to a blog post on The Twilight Lexicon. Their post, "First Book: What Got You Hooked?" is actually about a non-profit called First Book; an organization that works to provide children with books and encourage literacy.
On the homepage of the First Book website, you see the tag line, "Do you remember the magic of your first book?" This got my mental hamster running, and at first I thought of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House series. But I know I read the Betsy books first, so my mental hamster kept going, as my fingers got to typing.
Thank goodness for the internet! With a little bit of net-sleuthing, you can pretty much figure out the answer to any question, instantaneously. Actually, this didn't take much detective work because apparently the Betsy books have never been out of print (this is according to the product description on the Amazon page). All I had to do was type in "Betsy" on Amazon, and there it was, B is for Betsy by Carolyn Haywood.
Even though the title sounded right, as did the author name, I wasn't 100 percent sure that I had found my first-favorite book series; after all, it has been more than 20 years since I read those books. It was time to Google Carolyn Haywood. She was born in 1898 and in 1939 her first books featuring Betsy and Eddie were published. Amazingly, she went on to continue writing about the two characters for the next 50 years, and she even illustrated her own books until the 70s! Yes, I think I have found my first, favorite books. I may just have to read these again.
In the meantime, I wonder what books first got the rest of you hooked?
I loved reading The Littles series by John Peterson. The Littles are tiny people with tails and they live with this normal family called the Biggs. It's a really cute story.
ReplyDelete...sigh... hmmm... well, that all depends on how FAR back we are going. when i was extremely little i always LOVED clifford books and the berenstein bears stories. now that i'm older and read them to my students, i realize what good lessons they always included. mental note to self to remember to read them to my own children one day... :o).
ReplyDeleteas i started getting older, i dug into my sisters' books... hence, you and min. i remember LOVING The Babysitters Club (a group of girlfriends that get together and start their own babysitting business), Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High (identical twin sisters and their adventures through elementary school and high school), Sleepover Friends (a group of friends who take turns sleeping over each others' houses and the crazy things they do)... the list goes on and on. i'd guess that's where i REALLY got hooked on books... :o). unfortunately, for me they no longer publish these stories. times have changed and the new generation reads things like Junie B. Jones and Lemony Snicket.
soon after that i got a hold of your david eddings books and the rest is history... :o).