friday field trip

What is the first book you remember from your childhood?  When I posed this question to people I know, some common responses were Pat the Bunny and Good Night Moon…I remember reading these titles to my children, but have no recollection of them from my own childhood.  The first, and only picture book I remember was Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel  by Virginia Lee Burton…What does that say about me, I wonder?   It is a great book, mind you, but not exactly the kind of ‘warm and fuzzy’ titles mentioned by my friends.

With that in mind, I fast forward to a day recently when a friend gave me some of those trendy topic cards…you know the ones…they  suggest topics to  start dinner conversation?  Well, the ones I received suggest activities, and this was the first card I pulled out of the pack:

So, I guess I could have chosen to read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.   I didn’t.   I decided  to go with the first book I remember really enjoying reading by myself…the flashlight under the covers, I will risk getting in trouble, it’s so good, I like this whole reading thing book.  For me, that book was, without question The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary.

Interesting revelation that the two ‘milestone books’  from my childhood were both considered  ‘boy books’…particularly back at the time I was enjoying reading them.  Interesting.  My Friday field trip was to the local Barnes and Noble rather than the library.  I thought I might want to buy a copy of the book to keep for my bookshelf.   But, when I saw the cover illustration had been changed – modernized and looking very different from the original book  – I decided against it…it just didn’t look like the same book.

I planted myself in one of the comfy chairs in the corner of the bookstore and went about reading my book…to the left of me a girl was reading Psychology Today and to the right, a young man was reading Help Cure Cancer Through Nutrition.  There I sit, in the little reading circle, with a book from the children’s section written for an eight-year-old reading level…I wonder what the two neighboring readers thought about my selection?

I’m surprised how much of the story I did not remember, considering the book had such a profound effect on me.  Mrs. Cleary, now over 90 years old, was considered a trendsetter back in the 1960’s. She was a librarian that decided to write books for children when she discovered that school age children, particularly boys,  couldn’t find books that were written for people ‘like them.’

So, I wonder how I ended up with The Mouse and the Motorcycle…it was definitely taken out of my grade-school library, but I wonder how I chose it…Did the title or cover appeal to me?  Did the librarian recommend it to me?   I will never know.   I just know that last year,  when I was asked to name the top six books – of all the books read in my lifetime – that have had the biggest impact on me, The Mouse and the Motorcycle made the list.

Thanks Ms. Cleary, for instilling a life-long love for reading into my life.

To read more about Beverly Cleary, visit her website:  www.beverlycleary.com