Many people are born with a love of words burning deep inside their soul. However, not everyone is born with that passion. For some it is developed over time and for some sad souls it is never experienced at all. Today I thought I would share with all of you my journey into the beautiful world of literary imagination that I now inhabit.
As a young child I loved being read to by my parents and older sister. They would read me books like Butterfly Kisses and The Twelve Dancing Princesses. In school on the other hand, I hated to read. I refused to read anything more than Jog Frog Jog or Sue Likes Blue until I has halfway through 1st grade and my parents made me. I hated to read, I was so far behind. My first chapter book came in second grade it was The Box Car Children. I then spent the next 4 year in land of mystery. I read The Box car Children, Trixie Belden and Mandie. I enjoyed mystery and intrigue, but at this point I had still not developed a true appreciation for the beauty of words and literature. That was all about to change.
When I was in sixth grade Anne came into my life and changed my entire view of reading. Who is this mystical Anne? Well, she is Anne of Green Gables of course. These books were recommended to me by my mother. Of all the things my mother hastaught me over the years, things like walking, talking, and eating, telling me to read these books has been the most life changing. Anne inspired me to love not only reading, but writing, imagining and creating. After devouring all eight of these masterful books I went on to read things like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Little Women, and many others. I now enjoy reading a variety of different books, but it is always the classic novels with a strong female lead that grip me. I believe I have Anne to thank for my love of literature. She changed the way I saw books, the way I saw my life, and the way I saw the world. I used to want to be a nurse, Anne changed that for me, now I want to write. I was able to relate to Anne; like her I had a vivid imagination and a love of words bigger than myself. I never saw these qualities as a gift or as a way to make a living, but Anne showed me the truth. I want to create characters as powerful as Anne and change people’s lives the way L.M. Montgomery changed mine. This is my attempt t sum up my life through reading, but it is hard to try and sum up my reading life, because I am still in the middle of it. I am still learning to read in many ways, because with every book I read, I learn something new about literature and ways to interact with it.
Finding Fairyland with K. J. Reitsma 