Comments on: Comfort Novel Influences

By: Carrie Padgett

Carrie Padgett — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:09:17 +0000

Ahh! Thank you, Michelle.

I also loved All Of A Kind Family.

You’ve got me thinking about all my old favorites. Carolyn Haywood’s series about Betsy starting with “B is for Betsy.” Beverly Cleary’s Ramona and Beezus and Henry and Ribsy. I already mentioned Maud Hart Lovelace, my very favorite. Also E.L. Konigsberg and “From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwiler.” Oh, and Edward Eager’s magic series, “Magic by the Lake,” “Half Magic,” and others.

What fun to think about these…

By: KC Frantzen

KC Frantzen — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:54:22 +0000

My “to read” list is lengthening…

By: Ava Pennington

Ava Pennington — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:42:21 +0000

Oh, Michelle, you opened the gate to a flood of memories for me. I read every one of the Beany Malone books when I was 12. To this day, I still occasionally refer to the telephone as “Johnny’s Great Interrupter”!

By: Linda Rue

Linda Rue — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:55:30 +0000

Oh such delight! Marjorie Reynolds, ‘The Cabin On Ghostly Pond’ was read and re-read throughout my entire career as a grade schooler! Marjorie had to compete with all of the ‘Billy and Blaze’ books written and illustrated by C.W. Anderson. And then of course there were all those wonderful adventures of ‘The Box Car Children’, oh my, do I seek lonely cabins on small lakes, own horses and love small spaces and adventure because I gobbled up those lovely books or did those books just validate desires I already had and still do to this day? And of course, because of those delightfully stolen afternoons of reading in the hay of our barn, all four of my children, now grown, have read every single one of my favorite books as they discovered their own. I still want to read them!

By: Michelle Ule

Michelle Ule — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:48:53 +0000

She tried to take over BEANY’s wedding.

By: Michelle Ule

Michelle Ule — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:47:33 +0000

It was Beany’s aunt who tried to take over the wedding, Carrie.

Laura Ingalls Wilder was a big author in my life–my whole life, Lynn. I’ve read the entire series out loud to my four children FIVE times! They’re always grateful for whatever they get in their Christmas stockings . . .

The other influencing writer, at least in the raising-a-family-theme, was Madeleine L’Engle’s Meet the Austins series. I’ve played classical music while cleaning the house for thirty years, just like Mrs. Austin!

And I tried to convince my boys to dust more carefully by hiding pennies like the Mom did in the All of a Kind Family. She was better than I was.

Funny, how those memories are only a scratched surface away.

By: Carla Gade

Carla Gade — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:00:27 +0000

Breathe by Lisa Tawn Bergren. It was a very timely theme for me.

And I must add, Harold and the Purple Crayon!

By: Lynn Rush

Lynn Rush — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:56:25 +0000

Okay, don’t laugh. Do you remember, “Dear God, it’s Me Margaret”? I have NO idea when it came out or why I read that as a kid, but I remember it–bigtime! LOL.

But really, I can’t pin point one single book that has helped shape me. It’s been a bunch. But I’ve enjoyed reading these comments.

By: Carrie Padgett

Carrie Padgett — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:44:51 +0000

Oh, Michelle, I *loved* the Beany Malone books. I recently looked them up on Amazon just to spend some time with the Malones. I know what you mean about the values and situations speaking to you. I still remember the aunt who tried to take over the wedding plans – I don’t remember though if it was Beany’s wedding or her sister’s… Anyway, Beany Malone is definitely one of my comfort memories.

Also, Maud Hart Lovelace and the Betsy, Tacy and Tib books. I identified strongly with Betsy and read them all over and over again.

Apples Every Day is another one I reread annually for years. It’s set in a Canadian boarding school.

The Donna Parker and Trixie Belden series were dog-eared by the time I hit my teens. As a young adult, Agatha Christie and Dick Francis were the ones I reread.

Thanks for this little trip down memory lane!

By: Sally Apokedak

Sally Apokedak — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:29:44 +0000

Wow! Powerful post. This is why it’s so important for publishers to publish good books for children.

OK I’m not going to rant and rave again.

But, very quickly (I promise): In the old days you could get away with Elsie Dinsmore-type books. Now you have to have rounded characters and the story can’t be all moralistic. Still, books do transform us. I think we could go a long way toward taking back the world in a generation if we could control the stories kids read and watch on TV.