Warn Your Children about Books

[DanaC]

I don't remember which book hooked me. I was already reading by the time I went to nursery school - cue several years of having to follow the fucking reading programme, reading books that were dull and basic, and going through the rigamarole of reading a segment to the teacher and doing spelling tests so they could sign off on that level. To be fair to them, they occasionally jumped me a few levels - but there was a fuck of a lot of uninspiring make-work reading at school. I'd be sat waiting to take my turn reading aloud to teacher, from a book about a dog playing with his ball and then going home to read My Naughty Little Sister books, or the Faraway Tree.

I do remember being completely addicted to Enid Blyton for a time. First the younger books - like the Faraway Tree, or the Wishing Chair - then the Famous Five, or the Adventure series. And I also recall The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe series of books really got under my skin.

I was addicted to books by the time I was 4 or 5. I remember many early reading experiences - but the books themselves are a kind of wave. Each flurry of addiction, to an author, or to a series, or type of book I remember - but what came first and when I really don't know. I have vague recollections of the Hungry Caterpillar and a couple of fairy tale pop-up books - but don;t know if I am recalling the first time I read them or the many times I revisited.