The Monster at the End of This Blog

What was your favorite children's book?

Niki at http://nikirudolph.com

My mother never ceases to amaze me. She probably can't remember what happened five minutes ago, but she did remember my favorite little kid book.*

Last night's email exchange

When I was looking for images, this one made me laugh

A: Did I have a favorite little kid book? I need some help for tomorrow's Reverb Broads. 

M: You liked "The Monster at the end of this Book", I'm sure there were many others but that's the only one I can remember. 

A: You know, it's funny. That's what I was thinking, too, but I thought it was because I recently downloaded the iphone app. Do you know why I liked it? 

M: I think the first time it was exciting and then after that it was just funny.

But really I don't remember being read to.  It's not that I wasn't; I just don't remember it.  What  I do remember are all the series chapter books I loved. The characters became like family as I read more and more of the books. It seemed that with series books I would never run out of friends.  The more books in a series, the better.  Or perhaps, more books by the same author, the better

Some of my favorite series books.  I chose the images that most closely remembered the books I read.

I loved walking down to the basement of the public library or circumnavigating "the pit" in the elementary school library and pulling my favorites off the shelf.  Other favorites included the Little House books. For more on my love of books, see this post from earlier this year.

Also, the books I liked (um, like) were (are) full of mystery and adventure.  I think Kassie wrote that she wanted to live by herself after reading Island of Blue Dolphins. I wanted to make a yucca skirt because we had a yucca plant.

This post doesn't talk at all about children's and young adult fiction I love as an adult. The Hunger Games, To Kill a Mockingbird, Bridge to Terabithia, The Giver - all books I love as an adult.  I would also like to meet the woman who didn't use Judy Blume's books as at least a partial guide to growing up.

I was and am a person who reads and re-reads books.  So, the monster at the end of this blog?  Like the one in Grover's book, benign little ol' me, who just wants a book, or three.

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*Apparently, according to my mother, I'm supposed to stop teasing her in my blog because my readers will think she's lost her mind.  I asked her what her point was.  So, for the record, my mom hasn't completely lost her mind.  Not yet anyway.