Friday Five

1. What were your favorite childhood stories? As a child, I loved horse stories and anything remotely connected to the Fantasy genre.

2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children? My love for Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is something I want to pass on. Children's stories I read when I was older, but i want to share with any future children when they're young include Tolkien's ouevre and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything? I'm forever re-reading childhood stories and each of them continues to surprise me with its depth. There is infinitely more to them than meets the eye. People always praise the Harry Potter series for its appeal to adults. But that extra dimension is, I think, part and parcel to the whole Children's Literature genre!

4. How old were you when you first learned to read? I was about four. I went into kindergarten as a proficient reader--they even started to take me out of the class to do extra reading because of how far ahead I was. I didn't like being singled out, though. It made me anxious, so my mom asked that the school leave me with my peers.

5. Do you remember the first 'grown-up' book you read? How old were you? Wow. Um, I honestly don't remember. I was buying "grown-up" books at least since I was nine. I can't pinpoint the first book, though.