10 June 2009

First Book asks: What book got you hooked?

Hey, this is cool. First Book, a nonprofit that buys new books to give to kids in low-income communities, just launched a summer campaign called What Book Got You Hooked? Enjoy the choices of celebrities like Stephen Colbert, Scarlett Johansson and John Hodgman, then add your own story. I have donated to First Book before and I probably will again this year. (And for what it's worth, Charity Navigator gave them 4/4 stars.)

The first book I thought of for their prompt about reading as a kid was Laura Ingalls Wilder's LITTLE HOUSE series. I have a flashbulb memory of being told not to read my copy of FARMER BOY in the bathroom before bed while I should have been brushing my teeth. I remember being very upset when I finished THE FIRST FOUR YEARS with so much of Laura's life ahead of her, undocumented on the page. I hope my butter-colored copies survive (in a box at my parents' house, I believe) until if and when I can hand them off to a human child who may or may or not be genetically connected to me.

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