the first book you ever read.

{photo by Paul Greenhow}

Last night, a friend asked a bunch of us what book we first remember reading, not because we were forced or because someone read it to us, but because we enjoyed it and because we were reading it on our own.

 

It took me a while to figure out what exactly mine was. At first I thought Little Women. I remember reading that book for the very first time in the third grade. I threw my paperback copy across the room when Amy burned Jo's book (how could she?), and I hid in my closet to sob when Laurie chose Amy. I was devastated, heartbroken, and even as an eight year old, I knew I wanted to be Jo so badly. 

 

Little Women may be the first book I felt down to my very core, but I can't forget all the Little House on the Prairie books, or The Boxcar Children, or The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. I loved all of those books; I became all of those characters. I loved Laura, how brave and spunky and spirited she was, how eager she was to tag along with her Pa and how she relished in being called Half-Pint. And my cousins and brother still tease me for making us all act out the plotlines to many a boxcar mystery in my aunt and uncle's backyard. (It should be stated that their potting shed looked exactly like a boxcar.)

 

Then, though, a friend reminded of the books that I probably really did first read for fun: the American Girl series. I think they were my first "chapter books," the very first books I could read on my own, without Mom or Dad helping me power through. I started with Kirsten, then Felicity, Samantha, and Molly. Addy and Josephina came later, and to this day, I wonder if I'm the way that I am at least in part because of who my very first role models were.

 

Aren't we, to some extent, a product of what we read?

 

So now, I'm turning the question to you: Do you remember the first book you ever read, just for fun? Do you remember the first book you actually enjoyed reading, the books you first got lost in? (My friends mentioned Goosebumps and Nancy Drew.)

 

I'd love for you to share in the comments!