As an elementary-aged child, I never really enjoyed reading all that much. I would tackle books and assignments for school, of course, but I did so because I had to, not because I wanted to. The only books I remember truly enjoying and reading for fun were Garfield comic strip collections and many of The Berenstain Bears stories. I rarely found a book that sucked me in and in which I lost a sense of time and place. One that I could return to time and time again. That all changed somewhere between the ages of 10 and 12, when I discovered Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends.
That's not to say attempts were not made to get me to read more. I distinctly remember being in the fourth grade and my siblings and I receiving The Chronicles of Narnia box set as a gift. He instructed us to start the series by reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, which I did, and I loved it. But my trips to Narnia ended there, and to this day I have yet to read any of the other chronicles. Then there were The Little House on the Prairie books. As tried and true Minnesotans, my family gathered around the television every week to watch the network series based on the books and starring Melissa Gilbert and Michael Landon. I assumed because I liked the show that I would like the books. I was wrong. No matter how many times I tried to get through one of the Prairie novels, I'd give up and quit somewhere around chapter four. Perhaps a slight over-exaggeration, but it gets my point across. I really did not like reading books for fun. But then something happened I did not expect. Someone gave me a cassette tape of Shel Silverstein reading Where the Sidewalk Ends, and everything changed. I listened intently and giggled as he read about Melinda Mae (who ate a whale just because she said she would), Captain Hook (who must remember not to pick his nose), and Jimmy Jet (who watched so much TV he turned into a TV set). My favorite, though, was Sick, a poem wherein a young girl lists a great number of deathly ailments as reasons why she shouldn't go to school that day. Her belly button was caving in for goodness sakes! When she finds out the day was Saturday, however, she suddenly felt better, proclaiming "Goodbye, I'm going out to play." When I found out the audiobook contained only a sampling of Silverstein's poems, I knew I needed to read the others, and the only way to accomplish that was by acquiring a hard copy. Once I had Where the Sidewalk Ends in my hands, I read each perfect poem and studied each wonderful drawing, over and over and over again. A new found appreciation and love for the written word was born.
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I am a self-proclaimed pop culture geek and list enthusiast who is celebrating the big four-zero by counting down the most important, influential, and favorite music, movies, television shows, books, and video games of my life so far. Categories
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