Another first Monday of the month, and I’d like to wish all my American friends a happy Independence Day. It’s also another Question of the Month, posed by Michael D’Agostino of A Life Examined. You can join in – just discuss the question by posting in the comments, and hop round other people’s blogs to see what they said. Even better, sign up to join in next month!
This month’s question:
“What was the first book (or book series) you really fell in love with?”
My first thought was that it was the Jill series of pony books by Ruby Ferguson, but then I thought, no, it was probably Winnie the Pooh, and House At Pooh Corner, and Now We Are Six. For some reason I don’t have any clear memories of When We Were Very Young, so maybe I didn’t find any rhymes I really enjoyed, or, more likely, being the youngest of the family, I avoided it! I still have our family’s copies, in their threadbare cotton hardback covers. Pooh is red, Now We Are Six is blue, and I had to go and look at the other two… which leads to the discovery that House at Pooh Corner is also blue, and I don’t have When We Were Very Young, only in paperback (all four of them in the same livery). I wondered what happened there?
I reread the Jill books when I unpacked them when I moved into this house. I enjoyed them all over again. I haven’t reread Pooh yet, although I dipped in to Now We Are Six in search of one of the poems a couple of years back. I should sit and reread them again. I’m sure it would do me good. Have you ever read the Zen of Pooh? That’s very thought-provoking.
Want to see what others think…
My introduction to Winnie the Pooh came with the cartoon when I was quite young. It brought the characters to life in a brilliant way.
Yeah but they don’t look quite right, and the voices are all wrong 😀
I think my husband has the Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet, but I haven’t looked at them. I think I had a record of Pooh stories as a kid. That voice of Pooh is so familiar.
Oh :blush: It might be the Tao of Pooh I’m thinking about 🙂
I have so many memories of Winnie the Pooh but mostly watching the cartoons. 🙂
I find that the love of Pooh is split into two camps: the books vs cartoons.
It seems that those who saw the cartoon first can appreciate the books but hold the cartoon in an elevated position, while those who read the books first seem to simply tolerate the cartoons.
I’ll have to check out the Zen of Pooh.
Well, I only saw the cartoons in passing. I’m a firm bookish Pooh 🙂 and I might mean the Tao of Pooh, thanks to Tamara for spotting that!
I have to admit that I didn’t really develop a love of Pooh until reading the stories as an adult. Trying to think about my favorite books as a child…based on number of re-readings, I’d say first was Betty MacDonald’s “Nancy and Plum,” a rather sappy orphan story (which I nonetheless still love), and “Black Beauty.” Though a little later, maybe middle school age, there was an amazing true book (for adults, not kids) about a salvage tug that worked out of Seattle in the, IIRC, 40s and 50s. That was called “The Grey Seas Under.” I need to track down a copy and find out what the fascination was!
What a beautiful cover for the Jill book. I looked them up on Google. There are many different covers for these books, and all are charming.
I read Jill too! But my first love was always Enid Blyton – though she’s not much approved of now.
No, she wasn’t much approved of then, either. I defended her at my interview for secondary school, despite being advised not to mention her!