I thought it appropriate as this is the ‘First Page Book’
blog to make my first ever post about first novels read as a child. Yes it’s a post
about firsts!
I asked my uni facebook friends to contribute and as our
ages range from Gen Y to baby boomer I got some familiar and some (to me)
completely unknown responses. I think
what fascinated me most was the similarity in our reading experiences and the
obvious love we all have for reading. Not surprising I guess since we are all
embarked on a degree in Librarianship! Some of us started reading ‘chapter
books’ at the quite early age of 5 or 6. Little Golden Books and Dr Seuss
featured as popular first reads. Enid
Blyton also featured prominently from Famous Five and The Magic Faraway Tree to
Tales of Brave Adventure.
I have to confess to a 3 year obsession with Famous Five. I
read the entire series of 21 books many times between the age of six and nine. I
read Five go to Kirren Island (involving an intensely exciting day from after
breakfast to late afternoon)around the age of six. I wanted to be George the
tomboy wandering the countryside with a dog, having wonderful adventures. I really only started growing out of them
when I was given a box set of the Narnia series for my ninth birthday and I
entered a whole new series of adventures in other worlds.
Other examples of ‘first reads’ were Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys,
Trixie Beldon, Judy Blume, Shirley Barber and Mary O’Hara. Some collected and
devoured the Babysitter club series others read the mystery books where you
could select the path the characters could take in the story. Whether you
started with Grimms Fairy Tales or the Lion King picture book, it seems most of
us were seeking adventure and mystery from our reading as kids.
Novels aside, our first read is usually our reception
primer. Mine was The Happy Venture Readers which we had to read as a class out
loud… do they still do that? I can still
remember 40 years later, the cadence and
drone of thirty odd 6 year olds reading…
“Here is Dick. Run,
Dick, run. Nip is a dog. Nip, run to Dick. See Dora run.”
So what was your first real experience of
reading for yourself? How did it influence your reading as you grew up? If you
have children do you read the same books to them?
First proper book I read was Twice Shy by Dick Francis and I was 14. Until then I could not finish reading a book. Since then I have read about 8 novels a year, on average. Not a lot, but just right for me.
ReplyDeletePossibly anticipating a future post, but of these books the most memorable have been Shogun by James Clavell; The Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson; and Peter F. Hamilton's Trilogy (space opera, cannot remember the name - does that mean I cannot call it the most memorable)
well I never knew that DF was your first read :)
DeleteWhile i certainly remember dick and dora... run run run :)) and I did read all of the magic faraway tree and blinky bills adventure stories.. the authors that stands out for me during those younger years was Paul Jennings and Roald Dahl with their crazy adventure fiction!!
ReplyDeleteI read the ladybird series when I was 3 ... the Peter and Jane books. I then read Enid Blyton but the Noddy series and then progressed to the Magic Faraway type books before reading Secret Seven and The Famous Five. I really loved Enid Blyton but then, at 7 I started on the classics of The Secret Garden etc
ReplyDeleteI feel for children nowadays as these books are still fantastic but the way technology has advanced they seem rather dated and the language is pure unlike the Harry Potter and such where grammar seems unimportant.
My obsession with FF has it's lingering affects even now. Kids have so much choice in their reading today but the writing is mostly bad and so focussed on the supernatural and fantasy genres. Why can't there be more adventures written for kids based in this world?
DeleteKids today have many choices of books to read. I would have to say that Enid Blyton was a big favourite of mine when I was a little girl. And all of the Paul Jennings and Roald Dahl were my late Primary School Favourites. The blog is great and very interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Holly- so kind!
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ReplyDeleteDefinitely my primary age addiction was the mystery series by Enid Blyton, then Agatha Christie in my teens. Set the pattern for today really - where my first love now is finding foreign crime writers in English translation. There's a whole world of books out there we can only glimpse... aahh, the frustration of the language barrier!
ReplyDeleteMy first books are remembered as much for the illustrations as for the stories: 'Ben and Bella at the Seaside',for the images of their tiny sandcastle home with its curtains of discarded lolly wrappers; Lawson Wood's 'A Bedtime Picture Book' (Oh those naughty monkeys!)and 'The Bible in Pictures' illustrated in comic form from Genesis to Revelation. I loved the drawings in the Milly Molly Mandy books and even Famous Five and Biggles had evocative pen sketches.
ReplyDeleteOh yes book illustrations are wondeful. It is something us adults generally miss when leave behind children's books.
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