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Important question for all you unrepentant nerds:
Who was your childhood literary hero(ine)?
Mine:
English : Shel Silverstein, with Seuss as a close second
"Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout, would not take the garbage out..."
German: Wilhelm Busch (Max & Moritz)
Who was your childhood literary hero(ine)?
Mine:
English : Shel Silverstein, with Seuss as a close second
"Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout, would not take the garbage out..."
German: Wilhelm Busch (Max & Moritz)
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SF Bay Area
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Unsu...
Re: articulation inspiration
Tue, January 20, 2004 - 10:13 AMtoo many favorites to pick one, but i guess i find myself "borrowing" from A.A. Milne the most.
Seuss' "Green Eggs & Ham" was my first cover-to-cover read, though, at age: 2. -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Tue, January 20, 2004 - 12:27 PMDr Seuss' FOX IN SOCKS is STILL one of my all-time favorites! (smiling to myself right now, i remember once i totally impressed an old boyfriend by reading all those tongue-twisters out loud to him :)
i have to say though, if anyone is reading this post right now and has never experienced THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster, go out and get yourself a copy right now! not tomorrow, not next week, NOW. it is a classic. i can't remember how many times i've read it, as a kid and as an adult. in fact, i think i may be due to reread it again soon. no joke, it is the best. -
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Unsu...
Re: articulation inspiration
Tue, January 20, 2004 - 12:36 PMi remember loving that one too, tho it's been ages. An apartment fire last year meant the loss of everything, including all my books. May be time to search out and revisit Phantom Tollbooth again. Thanks for the reminder! -
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Tue, January 20, 2004 - 2:50 PM*gasp*....lost...all...your...books?! dude, that is TRAGIC!! reading your post nearly brought tears to my eyes! best wishes to you in rebuilding your library, and i certainly hope that the phantom tollbooth will have a place in it :)
wow, the more i'm thinking about it, it's really a must-read for every vocaba dorka out there! remember the two kingdoms of dictionopolis and digitopolis? and the market milo visits in the first kingdom? and the banquet where they have to eat their words? and those guards that repeat each other with synonyms, and the which ("not a witch dear, a which") and, and, so many good parts... i think i definitely need to reread it soon! (thanks for this thread emma, great question!) -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Tue, January 20, 2004 - 6:42 PMHi Deia!
I was starting to believe that no one here remembered childhood ;) -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Tue, January 20, 2004 - 7:55 PMoh, of course! :)
ok, i've been thinking more about this, and i could name a hundred more 'classics' and wonderful authors, like L.M. Montgomery for example, or Madeleine L'Engle, and so many others that i loved, and still love.
but, ok, i have a confession (and a question, i suppose)...
will i get kicked out of the tribe if i say that i used to LOVE nancy drew and the baby sitter's club?
and oh, admit it everyone, nothing compares to the "choose your own adventure" books! it's funny, i still have a couple of them, and when people visit my place they're some of the first to come off the shelf. pure genius. -
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Unsu...
Re: articulation inspiration
Wed, January 21, 2004 - 10:15 AMOh my god, Deia, Madeline L'Engle! I never would have remembered without your reminder, but I loved her as a kid! It was so much easier to stay connected to this sort of stuff when you could HOLD ON to the books, however seldom you might return to them, if at all. One of the reasons for clinging to a book collection despite the hell it imposes on a transient city-dwelling apartment-renter when it comes time to move again.
So keep those reminders coming! You're pushing my little-kid bookworm (pictured at left) buttons!
In addition to being a lapsed bookworm who lost his books, I'm also a free-form/eclectic radio DJ on a local community station. And lost my entire record/CD collection of some 1,000 titles or so. There too, the hardest stuff to lose are the things I'd held onto since a kid, and which i don't have in front of me anymore.
I know, boo-hoo. On a lighter note, YES to "choose-your-own-ending" books!!!! More More More!!!! I did Hardy Boys too, but not religiously. Now how bout that Encyclopedia Brown!!! -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Wed, January 21, 2004 - 2:43 PMgahh! not the music too! ohhhh.....
i know it's totally off the book topic, but that's awesome about the d.j.ing - one of my dreams to do some of that someday!
hmmm, this is fun! i'll have to check my bookshelf to pull out some more reminders for ya!
one that's popping into my mind right now is richard peck. he wrote these spooky ghost stories. judy blume and beverly cleary are coming to mind. oh, there was another ghost story writer that i can't think of the name right now, but this one book i must have read fifty times! joan aiken, wolves of willowby chase series. of course, the lion, witch, wardrobe series. recently read the indian in the cupboard, so great! and oh, has anyone ever read "the secret world of og"? it's by a canadian author, and i don't think it ever got printed in the u.s., but it's another classic.
if you want more, i'll check my bookshelf and add more to the thread later. i kept most of my childhood books, and still have a soft spot in my heart for children's literature!!
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Re: articulation inspiration
Wed, January 21, 2004 - 5:19 PMoh my goodness gracious, i can't believe i've neglected to mention the MASTER... Roald Dahl! most famous for "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory" and "James & The Giant Peach", my personal favorite was always "The Twits". -
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Unsu...
Re: articulation inspiration
Wed, January 21, 2004 - 6:07 PMhahahaha...yes, he was one of my all-time faves. Had a third-grade teacher who read ALL of them to us aloud! Delightfully wicked. I thought of mentioning him, but was afraid he was too obvious, especially after I offer A.A. Milne and you come back with the Phantom Tollbooth and Madeline L'Engle!!!!
Roald Dahl was huge for me.
But wait....THE TWITS?????
I don't know that one! I get to read one for the first time? what's The Twits about?! -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Wed, January 21, 2004 - 6:39 PMi know, it's one of the lesser known ones (and actually a fairly short one), but it is hilarious! the Twits (that's their last name) are the meanest nastiest couple in the whole world. they play mean tricks on each other, and do things like coating the trees with glue to catch birds for dinner, or, oh, i shouldn't give it all away. if you can find a copy you should read it. i actually got it off the shelf not too long ago to show a friend - i was teasing him that his beard was getting out of control, and there's this one chapter when he's introducing Mr Twit who has a seriously nasty beard, and there's this great illustration of all that nasty things that are lodged in it(the beard)....
by the way, at least in my book(haha), never be afraid of being 'too obvious' or whatever. though i do know what you mean. i felt like i was going out on a limb with the mention of nancy drew, and sometimes wonder if other tribe members are gasping at the poor grammar and such in my writing (i CAN write correctly! i just choose not to when i'm expressing myself in a more personal way! i think i already explained that in another thread somewhere)
also by the way, A.A. Milne rocks!
trips down memory lane are fun! thanks!
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Re: articulation inspiration
Mon, January 26, 2004 - 6:12 PMhere's another question on the topic of "children's literature":
what do you all think of the Harry Potter books? have any of you read them?
personally, it irritates me when things get over-hyped, but i think the books themselves are marvelous! -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Tue, January 27, 2004 - 11:48 AMYes, the overhyping is annoying. However, I agree that they were well written for their audience and do a great job of capturing what life really would be like for a child having gone off to boarding school (admittedly the weirdest boarding school ever) while battling through puberty.
What's more annoying to me are the fundamentalist christians that dismiss the storytelling because it supposedly espouses a magic that conflicts with christiandom. Drives me nuts that this thinking presupposes that the human imagination and inspiration should be limited to biblically related thinking.
Another interesting contrast to the whole Potter mania was the subsequent huge commercial upswell of the Baudelaire orphans books. I discovered them early on by accident by connecting the author from his connection to one of the most amazing pop bands of all time, The Magnetic Fields & Stephin Merritt. Lemony Snickett (blanking on his real name right now) plays accordian on some of the MF songs. Anyway, the Baudelaire books are a delight, IMHO, but have become less of a treat to me as they have become so astoundingly popular. The joke of them being a satiric gothic teen novel series has worn a little on me, but still a good read. All in all, I would still venture to say, uncool as it is, the Potter books are better written.
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Re: articulation inspiration
Tue, January 27, 2004 - 11:37 AM...She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans,
Candy the yams and spice the hams,
And though her daddy would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out....
I totally loved that one. Couldn't get through it without laughing when I tried to read it to my 6th grade class once.
Also loved "Me & him, him & me". At the time, "I want to sleep, he has to pee" was the height of dirty talking.
Thanks for the memories!
JD -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Tue, January 27, 2004 - 2:10 PMGood old Shel...
Wonderful, silly rhymes!
How about:
" Ickle-me, Pickle-me, Tickle-me too, went for a ride in a flying shoe
Ickle was captain, and Pickle was crew..."
I absolutely love his poems.
Did you know he did cartoons for Playboy magazine? I met a woman in Crete once who had worked with him. A real hound, apparently. -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Tue, January 27, 2004 - 2:45 PM" Ickle-me, Pickle-me, Tickle-me too, went for a ride in a flying shoe
Ickle was captain, and Pickle was crew..."
i loved that one too!
interesting about the playboy connection - didn't know that one. however, i once had the opportunity to listen to a CD of some songs he'd written - can't say i loved it all, though there were a few funny ones in there - but it was definitely interesting to see the 'adult' side to him!! fascinating.
oh, mind-blank here - was Shel Silverstein the one who wrote "The Giving Tree" and "The Missing Piece" stories? those are wonderful too!! -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Tue, January 27, 2004 - 2:49 PMYep, that'd be Shel. -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Sat, January 31, 2004 - 5:42 PMHarriet the Spy! i aspired to be her for years, perched within our loquat tree, trying to hear what my (very dull) neighbors were saying to each other. -
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Sat, January 31, 2004 - 5:46 PMwhoops, that was my answer to your question without reading beneath to see if you were talking authors or characters. My author would have to be Frank Baum. I was an OZ girl, and then got very into the Wardrobe books as well. And the author that wrote A Wrinkle in Time. Another all time favorite series was the Moomintroll Series (did anyone read those?) ~ not sure about the author... -
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Re: articulation inspiration
Sat, January 31, 2004 - 5:53 PMthat's ok! Harriet rocks, and deserves the mention! :)
not familiar with the moomintroll series. what was it about?
ah, OZ... when i was about 8 i got a pet guinea pig and i named her nimmie-ammie after the princess the tin man had been in love with. (was she a princess? wow, now i can't remember!)
yup, Madeleine L'Engle wrote A Wrinkle in Time. so great. that book always made me cry.
you know who else did? i think the author's name is Katherine Patterson. she wrote The Bridge to Terabithia(sp?) and a number of other books that i can't think of at the moment. but i know i've read a few of them and every single one made me cry. ah well. i'm sappy that way. -
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Sat, January 31, 2004 - 6:01 PMOh my gosh, just reading the title "Bridge to Teribithia" took me back to Teribithia with a body decorated by goosebumps! That book was sooooooo sad. It made quite an impression on me and always made me want to create my own version of Teribithia, but in San Diego we had no woods, only canyons, which we weren't allowed in in the rain. Hmmm. I love reminiscing! -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: articulation inspiration
Sat, January 31, 2004 - 6:07 PMAnd Deia, I read The Secret World of Og and LOVED IT! It's on my shelf now, I think. My brain is doing somersaults with this topic right now...
I was also a huge fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure books.
OOOh, the Moomintroll books are worth a read even now. It was a complicated society of sweet creatures who lived in villages and had many adventures. I am not certain why, but those books were comforting to me. I've got to get my child's library out of my mom's garage at some point soon, and hope they are preserved...
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