Thinking back on what I read as a kid, a theme popped up that I had never quite noticed before. Witches. I was a girl who was fascinated and sometimes enamored with witches. If I had to guess, I’d say this fascination started when my mom let me watch “The Wizard of Oz” on repeat daily, well before my reading years. My first words might have been “I’ll get you my pretty…and your little dog too.” Or something like that. But as I got older, I loved books like Matilda and The Witches by Roald Dahl, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. I also loved the Baby-sitters Club series because I saw myself and my friends in the characters. I’m pretty sure at some point my friends and I all chose who we would be if we were in the Baby-sitters Club. I always chose Mary Anne. It’s a nice thought, to remember how reading unlocked hours of play with my friends, pretending to be better versions of ourselves or someone entirely different. And either one was okay because we knew there was someone else out there just like that, because we had already found them in a book.
And today, books still let me be someone else for a while, which is probably the thing I love most about reading. My reading tastes vary but I usually go towards realistic stories. I enjoy off-beat memoirs from famous and not-so-famous people, juicy novels about human connection from authors like Liane Moriarty and Jodi Picoult, and creepy stories like Holly, which tells a disturbing tale about an elderly couple with an unusual diet (to say the least). Don’t worry though, it’s not all serious stuff and creepy murder stories. My job allows me to discover new books every day and my list would not be complete without some standout junior novels and a few story time hits too. See you at the library!
Then:
A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare
The Baby-sitters Club: Mary Anne Saves the Day, Ann M. Martin
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Now:
Mad Honey, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
The courage to be disliked, Ichiro Kishimi
American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins
The Husband’s Secret, Liane Moriarty
I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy
The Rent Collector, Camron Wright
Tree. Table. Book., Lois Lowry
Leonardo the Terrible Monster, Mo Willems
Every Monday Mabel, Jashar Awan
