Books from my Childhood

I loved books growing up! I'm an only child so I learned to entertain myself, stuffed animals, and my cat named Michael with reading books either to myself or aloud. In fact, I would get in bed at night and literally read myself to sleep. I still do that. My first favorite books were all of Richard Scarry's books such as the Busiest People Ever; Busy, Busy World and Best First Book Ever. I loved snuggling up and look at all of the pictures while connecting the words with the pictures. I would imagine what it would be like to be in a big city in a far away place like London, England as I looked at pictures in the Busy, Busy, World book. Richard Scarry's picture books taught me not only to enjoy reading and learning to spell, his books opened my eyes of far away places. Perhaps that is where I gained my sense of adventure and the love of travel. Two other books that come to my mind are The Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein and Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. Both of these books are iconic classics. I have such fond memories of my mom reading these to me and discussing how important it is to help as others as it related to both of the stories within these books. I still have my original books and have read them to my boys when they were young. I love books for so many reasons. Books bring you back to a specific place and time when you read them, they have the ability to take you to far away places and time; places that you've never been or will ever go, they give you a perspective that you wouldn't otherwise have had you not read the book. Books are keepsakes of stories which can be passed down from one generation to another just as I have passed my childhood books to my boys. Not only do I have such special memories of my mother reading to me, I now have special memories of me reading to my boys as they cuddled up on each side of me while I read aloud to them.