Tags
Charlotte's Web, Elizabeth Fais, Emma Walton Hamilton, Favorite Books, It Takes Two, Julie Andrews, Julie Andrews Collection, Mandy, Mary Poppins, NY13SCBWI, SCBWI, SCBWI Winter Conference 2013, The House at Pooh Corner, The Little Gray Men
Magic happens at writers’ conferences… So it was no surprise that the air was sparkling with it at the “Practically Perfect” NY13SCBWI Winter Conference. Seriously. How could it not, with Julie Andrews (a.k.a. Mary Poppins) and her amazingly talented daughter Emma Walton Hamilton as keynote speakers?
Julie Andrews has been writing wonderful books for children for forty years–on top of launching the Julie Andrews Collection–and has collaborated with her daughter on 27 titles. To read the SCBWI blog on their presentation, go here: “It Takes Two”. You won’t want to miss it. It’s awesome!
What I wanted to talk about today came from a question asked of Julie Andrews after the presentation…
What book influenced you the most growing up?
A simple enough question … on the surface. But when I peeled back the layers of 
time and re-experienced the feeling that one book gave me, hooking me on reading for the rest of your life…
Four words: It rocked my world.
That book opened a doorway to magic, imagination, and adventure, and I could go there any time I just by opening the pages. Pretty powerful stuff.
For Julie Andrews, that book was “The Little Gray Men“. She loves that story so much, that she brought it back into print in the Julie Andrews Collection. For the person asking the question, it was Julie Andrews’ first book, “Mandy“.
For me it was “The House at Pooh Corner“. I was in the third grade, and the silliness of the story and clever misspelled words, like “rox” and “Wol” won me over instantly. And all the endearing characters were my new BFFs.
My fourth grade teacher read “Charlotte’s Web” to our class, and I fell in love with Wilbur and Charlotte. I’d never really cared much for pigs until then, and I’d been terrified of anything spidery. One story changed all that.
There have been many books since… But “The House at Pooh Corner” will always be my first; the book that was the key to a world of wonder.
How about YOU…
What book rocked your world?
Don’t be shy. You’re among friends here.
And don’t be afraid to tell us about more than one treasured story that changed your life!
Elizabeth Fais 
“Anne of Green Gables.” After reading it the first time, I knew Anna and I were bosom buddies and shared very similar imaginations.
A wonderful story Jodi. I didn’t read Anne of Green Gables until I was much older, and still loved it!
Little House In The Big Woods. I still have a secret desire to churn my own butter and make my own candles…
😉
I’m right there with you Liv. In my late teens, I taught myself how to make bread and can all sorts of fruits and vegetables. This on top of making my own clothes! Hmmm… no wonder I wasn’t popular back then. 😉
Charlotte’s Web. My first grade teacher read it to us and she not only did all the different voices, but she also surprised us one morning by creating a huge spider web made of black yarn with “Salutations” in it and strung it across one of the classroom windows. We had just read that part and I was awestruck seeing it the next day.
Not long after, the Little House on the Prairie books became my obsession and by 5th grade my friends and I had convinced our teacher to let us have an entire “Little House” school day in which the whole class dressed like that time period, including our teacher, and conducted the school day as Laura would have experienced it. It was awesome.
That’s fabulous. I LOVE your teachers! The learning experiences and memories they gave you are priceless. 🙂
I’m struggling to answer this question – a gazillion books from the era of my childhood are zipping through my brain. But I can’t honestly single one out. Anne of Green Gables would be in there… and I seem to remember being a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland.
I wanted to say, though, that I used to have The little grey men, along with its sequel The little grey men go down the bright river (or something). These are not books I’ve ever heard anyone else reading. I haven’t a clue where I got them from (and they didn’t rock my world). Also, I had no idea Julie Andrew wrote children’s books. Wow.
That’s wonderful that your childhood was so rich with reading. Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland are both awesome.
I’d never heard of The Little Grey Men either. Julie Andrews said that it was originally only published in the UK, and probably back when stories moved a bit slower. 😉
Yes, it’s quite ponderous from memory 🙂
As a kid – where do I begin? Just about all the Heinlein ‘juveniles’. Jean Craighead George’s ‘My Side of the Mountain’. ‘The Wind In The Willows’. All the CS Lewis Narnia series. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’. Madeleine L’Engle’s ‘A Wrinkle In Time’. Dodie Smith’s ‘101 Dalmatians’. Arthur Ransome’s ‘Swallows and Amazons’ series. I still have copies of many of these, to this day.
Wow, what a wonderful collection. Your parents must have read to you when you were young. I didn’t read most of your favorites until I was much older, but I loved them even then!