Days 7-9

[bironic]

thirdblindmouse and I ended up chatting a little bit about children's books in the last post, which made me remember this one. Does it ring a bell for anyone? ETA: Found! Ha, the cut text turned out to be the title.

7. Kindergarten

Comments

[elynittria]

OMG-the five Chinese brothers! I loved that book! One of the brothers could swallow the sea, as I recall. I used to take that book out of our public library all the time when I was a kid.

[bironic]

Aaaah! What was it called?! ETA: Why didn't I just type what I remembered into Google? It would have turned this up right away.

Swallowing the sea -- yes, I think I remember that... OMG, awesome.

[elynittria]

I think the title may have been The Five Chinese Brothers. (Kids' books tend to have rather straightforward titles.) All of the brothers had long pigtails in the illustrations-pretty stereotypical, I suppose, but I thought it was cool.

Other books I remember from around that age are a book about a steam shovel (Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel?) and a book about a house that endured lots of changes: a city grew up around it, and it was all alone, overshadowed by the tall buildings, is all that I really recall. It depressed me for some odd reason, but I kept rereading it.

[bironic]

That reminds me of Dr. Seuss's "The Zax," where they're so stubborn that they face off while a city grows up around them. I don't remember a steam shovel story, but the house one... hm....

All of the brothers had long pigtails in the illustrations

Yes! There's a link to the front cover and first page of the book on that Amazon link.

[nightdog_barks]

I don't remember ever reading the Chinese brothers book, but just from looking at that Amazon page I do remember loving Blueberries for Sal, Harold and the Purple Crayon, and Where the Wild Things Are.

I also remember reading some long-lost book out loud and stumbling over the word "Plymouth" (the car, not the rock). I'd never seen it written down before and so I pronounced it "Ply-mouth," and my mother gently corrected me.

[bironic]

Aw. It's a completely understandable assumption.

Where the Wild Things Are, definitely. Maurice Sendak was a Reading Rainbow favorite.

What I remember of Blueberries for Sal is the big silver seal on the cover from whatever award it won (and the illustration too, of the boy in the field).

[purridot]

Where the Wild Things Are!

A shiver *still* goes down my spine when the wallpaper of his room slowly transforms into a forest.

And that book made me long for a four-poster bed. (Someday I hope!)

[thewlisian_afer]

I wanted that purple crayon, man. I wanted it so bad.

[purridot]

Now I want to read The Five Chinese Brothers! It sounds cool.

My favourite childhood book was DEFINITELY Miss Suzy, about a grey squirrel who loves to bake, is chased out of her home by evil red squirrels and takes refuge in a lovely dollhouse, before assembling a task force that wins her back her old home.

This book played a huge role in molding my present day character (it DID!) <3

[bironic]

Wherein the plucky heroine just happens to be a squirrel. :D

[purridot]

*facepalm* Yes, it's true.

And even at that tender age I sensed a slashy undertone to the group of too-handsome toy soldiers she enlisted to do the actual siege.

Mmm, cute men in uniforms...

[bironic]

Ah! A plucky heroine with a harem, no less. And they might serve her or, er, "serve" each other at her command.

[mer_duff]

The books I remember best from my early childhood are the Beatrix Potter Tales (my sister and I each had a Beatrix Potter plate) and A Child's Garden of Verse. But I was shopping for books for my friend's two-year-old twins in the fall and had a rush of happy memories when I saw a Richard Scarry book. I loved how everything in the pictures had a label.

[bironic]

Oh, Richard Scarry! We had a computer program or two of his stuff on our old Apple II, where you'd travel from screen to screen with the worm's apple car and learn to identify and spell things.

7. Reading groups

[thewlisian_afer]

I always despised reading groups. Even the most advanced one(s) in the class were too damn slow for me. I suppose this is what happens when your reading skills reach college-level by the time you hit fifth grade. Eventually, because I would get cranky and belligerent otherwise, I was allowed to read independently when we did group reading during class. Except for second grade.

In second grade I was put into a "group" -- it was really just a pair -- with a girl called Megan. Megan could not read. At all. So during group reading time, I taught her how. I desperately wish I could remember how I managed this but, alas, I can't. It's still one of my favorite accomplishments in life, though. To this day, any time Megan and I run into each other, she'll proudly tell anyone who's with us that I'm the one who taught her to read in second grade when the adults were starting to think maybe she just wasn't capable of learning how. :)