reading children’s and young adult novels takes me down memory lane. no doubt it does for you as well. i was an avid and prolific reader as a child, i remember going to the library and cleaning out entire shelves, opening them up at the counter so the librarian could scan and stamp them with the due date, and carting them all home proudly in my pink canvas guess bag. i would them proceed to devour them the moment i returned home, gleefully writing down each title i finished on my reading log. i knew i would receive great praise from my teachers once they saw the list. that little show off, they must have thought to themselves.

from beverly clearly to laura ingalls wilder, brian jacques to madeline l’engle, i’ve got most of the classics covered. my friends and i recently decided that we’d start a children’s book club. it would be our chance to reread our favorites from childhood together. i dont know if our discussions will center around nostalgia or something more serious.  forget the regurgitation of the plot in form of a book report. themes, impressions, allusions instead, please. we decided to begin with the classic author-illustrator team of roald dahl and quentin blake. remember them?

and… of course, the one that made me question all my teachers:

what were your favorite children’s novels? do you still enjoy reading them as much as you did when you were a kid?