Books, books, books, I love books!

And I always have! So this week’s blog hop topic is perfect!

 

Before I dive right into the matter at hand, a quick hello to all of you who’ve stopped by from my friend S.C. Mitchell’s blog!  His latest fantasy romance is Daughter of Darkness.

This week’s topic: We all love to read so much, what were your favorite books as a child/young adult?

Oh, I love this topic! I was a voracious reader when I was a child. I still love to read but I no longer have the time to spend hours lost in other worlds.

One of the first things I really remember “binge reading” was Aesop’s Fables. The copy I had contained gorgeous illustrations. But it wasn’t just the pictures that attracted me. I loved the stories, each of them seemed to be a perfect little package of wisdom. I can’t find the version I had when I was a child, but this is one I bought for my twins.

One of my favorite fables was “The Fox and the Stork.”  Here’s a condensed version: a fox invites a stork over for dinner, and serves soup in a bowl, making it impossible for the stork to eat. The stork didn’t complain, and asked the fox to her place for dinner the next night. She served food in a jar with a long skinny neck, which the fox could only lick at and he was very angry. The moral, as I remember it, was do not play tricks unless you like to be tricked. The funny thing is, my husband I love playing little tricks on each other. Nothing mean, just teasing little tricks. Maybe the moral of our story is Jokes played with love and good humor make for a happy marriage.

My children discovered The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. on their own at our public library and I was thrilled. It was a book I hadn’t thought of in years, but when they chose it at the library a few years ago it brought back a flood of good memories. 

Growing up in Southern California, my brother and I always wished for snow. I was jealous of the character, Peter’s, experiences crunching through the snow and even having snow splat on his head when he hit a tree. There’s also an animated story read by the author that is really charming. http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/read-aloud/the-snowy-day/

Finally, I’m going to mention a Young Adult author that I discovered recently. I’m not a huge fan of Young Adult fiction (I write New Adult romances, which is different. Mostly because of all the sex!) But I really enjoy books by Sarah Dessen.
I think if she had been active when I was the target audience for YA I would have really enjoyed her books. The characters act in a way that is completely believable to me. They make mistakes, but are generally good kids. My favorite of her books that I’ve read is Saint Anything.
A girl who’s lived in the shadow of her older brother has to deal with the aftermath of his drunk driving accident. Along the way, she falls in with a family who, while not exactly misfits, are definitely not your typical suburbanites. It’s a great story and has stuck with me. I’m not the only one who was impressed, it was a TIME Magazine Top 10 Children’s Book of 2015.

As always, I’d love it if you checked out my book. My latest one is “The Comeback.” It’s part of my Montgomery University Series. All the books are standalone, so dive right in anywhere!

 

Now hop on over to visit my friend Jenna Da Sie to see what kids’ books she recommends (I plan to take notes!)