Then and Now
As part of World Read Aloud Day, book lovers are being asked by event organizers at LitWorld to participate in a 4-week blogging challenge. The instructions for this week are to…
Answer the following questions twice. The first time, answer how you would have when you were 10 years old (or any age from elementary school that you remember clearly) and the second time, answer in the present.
Here are the questions and my answers:
1. I think everyone in the world should read…
When I was 10: as much as they want, whenever they want.
Now: as much as they want, whenever they want. Some things never change!
2. If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be…
When I was 10: my dad, because he didn’t read to me as much as my mom did, so when he took the time to sit down and share a book it was really special. He didn’t keep up with what was being published for kids at the time, so he stuck to the classics, like Tom Sawyer.
Now: author and storyteller Carmen Agra Deedy. I heard her in person one time and she was phenomenal! She’s funny, she can do lots of different voices, she has great pacing and timing, and she has so much passion for the stories she tells. She’s my role model for reading aloud in my library!
3. When I read aloud, my favorite character to impersonate is...
When I was 10: I liked to do the wicked stepmothers and stepsisters in fairy tales so I could use [what I thought was] a haughty, refined voice.
Now: I like doing the character of “Baby Blair” from the book Somebody and the Three Blairs by Marilyn Tolhurst. The voice I use sounds a lot like Baby Bear from Sesame Street, and whenever I read in that voice I invariably have kids laughing and imitating it. It’s actually the voice I use for all babies and baby animals because it’s so much fun to see the reaction I always get from kids!
5. The last book I wish I’d written or inspired me to write my own story is…
When I was 10: All books inspired me as a writer when I was young. Creative writing was one of my favorite subjects all through school. If I have to choose just one though, I guess it was Little Bear written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. One morning my second grade teacher asked everyone to write a story during class. Instead of making up my own story, I just wrote down the first chapter (“What Will Little Bear Wear”) from Little Bear – from memory! – and turned it in. I guess I thought my teacher wouldn’t recognize it!
Now: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. The intricate plotting just blows me away. I’ve written about this book twice at Book Buzz, my children’s book blog for my students, and it’s the only time I’ve ever written about a book twice.
4. The genre that takes up the most room on my bookshelf (or e-reader) is…
When I was 10: mysteries. I had the whole collection of Nancy Drews.
Now: mysteries. I have the whole collection of a variety of great mystery series. I told you, some things never change!
Image: ‘books in a stack (a stack of+books)‘Found on flickrcc.net
