The Books that Defined our Childhood

It's no secret that books are one of the most important things you can give to and share with a child, no matter how young they are. Even a simple picture book with little to no words can open up a kid's imagination, and teach them things you didn't even realize they were learning. Even the fine motor skills of simply turning pages is crucial. And in a day and age where most kids are being given computers and phones and IPads, it's more important than ever to make sure that good old-fashioned books don't go the way of the dinosaur.

Some of my earliest memories of sitting down with a book was either on my parents' laps as they read to me, or listening along to those books that came with the cassette tapes that narrated the story and had music and sound effects. You know the ones; the kind where the narrator would tell you "when you hear THIS sound, turn the page!" I distinctly remember having the read-along book for Disney's "Aladdin" and listening to it on my Fisher-Price cassette player (the one that came with the tiny microphone so you could record your own stuff---remember that?)

Then, of course, there was good old Dr. Seuss. EVERYONE on Earth has read at least ONE Dr. Seuss book in their life. Although, I could only read these whenever I visited my grandma, as they were all at HER house. For some reason, my parents never got them. My most clear memory is reading "Green Eggs and Ham" in kindergarten, and then our teacher cooked scrambled eggs for all of us and dyed them green with food coloring.  (On an actual hot plate that we all casually stood around and watched. That would be a huge no-no now.  Us 90s kids were built different.)

So if my folks didn't really invest in Dr. Seuss that much, what books DID we have at our house? A TON to say the least. But these were some of my absolute favorites.

First up is the tried-and-true classic, "Clifford the Big Red Dog" (aka: Baby's First Kaiju). Red is often my favorite color, and I blame a lot of that on these stories about a little girl and her cute puppy that somehow grew to an enormous size, yet her parents let her keep him. But it's a great, simple way to teach kids the responsibilities of pet ownership, and that when life suddenly throws you a curveball (such as a situation becoming harder and more complicated than you thought), you can't just run away or dump the problem on someone else. You made a promise to love and take care of your pet and you HAVE to keep that promise no matter what. And bonus fun fact: I was able to read these all by myself before I even entered kindergarten. It's one of the things that qualified me to be allowed to skip pre-school.

Next  up is an underrated gem that I don't see get talked about anywhere, and that is "The Ghosts' Dinner". If there's ANYONE else out there that had this or read this as a kid, PLEASE tell me, because I don't want to be the single person who has to carry the torch for this funny story about a bunch of ghosts who change color depending on what they eat. Maybe I'm reaching a bit, but I guess you could make the argument that this book teaches kids the old lesson of "you are what you eat"? Or it can be a cute example of how not every book aimed at young children has to have a moral attached to it. Sometimes, it's nice to just indulge in a silly fantasy. Either way, my Mom only pulled this book out whenever October rolled around, which made the countdown to Halloween all the more exciting.

We then have one of my FAVORITE childhood books of all time; the one that sparked my interest in dinosaurs before "Jurassic Park" ever did, and one that is also criminally underrated:  "Dinosaur Bob". I wanted SO BADLY to be a part of this family that went on adventures all over the world and didn't even bat an eyelash at discovering a living dinosaur in the jungle and bringing him home. And the way Bob used his skills to help the local baseball team finally win a game always brought a smile to my face. And the full blown paintings on each page was some of the most stunning artwork I'd ever seen in a book as a kid (and frankly, it still is). But best of all....

....I still have my stuffed plushie of Bob to this day.

Jumping forward in time a bit, when I was deemed a bit too old for picture books (which, if you ask me, no one is ever too old to read a picture book), I started reading full blown chapter books. "Goosebumps" was especially big when I was growing up (and THAT series will get its own blog entry in the future). But there was another series that captured my imagination just as strongly, and that was "The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks".

Yes. You heard me right. "The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks".  I'll let that title sink in for a moment.

As arguably dumb and off-the-wall as this premise sounds, this was, to my memory, the first book series that I ever kept up with; eagerly waiting for the next installment to come out and buying every one. The idea of two brothers creating near-sentient, sock-devouring plants via a science experiment was so silly, yet so endlessly entertaining. And each one got exponentially ridiculous as the plants evolved, and it got harder-and-harder for the kids and their parents to keep the monster plants a secret from the town at large. And yes, the parents knew everything that was going on and often became a part of the shenanigans, which was actually a breath of fresh air in terms of plot. After so many stories where the kid protagonists have to keep a secret from meddling grown-ups who are portrayed as super dumb or absent-minded, it was nice to get a story where the parents were actually smart; had realistic reactions to the mayhem going on, but still helped the brothers keep their weird plants because they knew how important they were to their kids. It just goes to show that you can have the wackiest plot imaginable, but if you balance it out with great, likeable, relatable characters, kids will go along for pretty much any ride you take them on.

Finally, we have a slight deviation, as these books didn't come out until I was already out of high school and working my first job at a toy store (which is where I discovered these to begin with). But these books are so beautiful, I HAD to mention them. So I guess you can file these under the honorable mention category of "books that I WISH I had growing up because I would've devoured these". And that is, "The Three Questions" and "Zen Shorts; Zen Ties; Zen Ghosts". Each one of these involves the main protagonists being faced with some kind of problem, and utilizing the lessons taught by Leo Tolstoy and Zen Buddhism to solve said problems. It's something I've never seen done in a children's book before or since, and these are all great ways to teach kids how to find peaceful solutions, and look at the bigger picture rather than get upset at things that are only temporary. And the watercolor illustrations are absolutely GORGEOUS. I could stare at them for hours (and I have).

There's a TON more books I could talk about, so maybe I'll do a sequel to this someday, but these were the first ones that came to my mind. What were some of the most memorable books YOU remember growing up with?

Things I Got Done This Week

--began coloring the next "Jamie Jupiter" episode

--continued writing my next "Rini Boe" book

--uploaded a video tour of my website, which you can watch HERE

--made a new banner for my convention tables (see the "upcoming events" tab for details)

 Do you want to see behind-the-scenes photos and commentary on all these projects? All of this is available in my totally free newsletter! The next one comes out September 16th!