my mom always encouraged me to read, and it started with her reading picture books to me. my favorite was the monster at the end of this book, starring lovable furry old grover! grover from sesame street is terrified to get to the end of the book because he's scared of the monster, but in the end it turns out it was just him all the time. my mom would always do a silly grover voice when she read it to me.
as i got older, my "reading level" as the school called it was always higher than other kids', which is good i guess, but it meant they limited what i could get from the school library to what they deemed appropriate for my level. i liked harry potter and lord of the rings, but i also wanted to read stuff like goosebumps and choose your own adventure books. luckily my teachers allowed me to read those things from their classroom libraries.
there was a book i read as a kid that i've honestly never met another person who's ever heard of it, but i loved it when i read it and i loved it again when i tracked it down and re-read it a few years ago. it's called how to disappear completely and never be found by sara nickerson. a 12 year old girl whose mother is severely depressed sets off to a mysterious house on a nearby island to try to figure out how her mom owns it, why she's selling it, and what it has to do with her deceased father. i realized when i re-read it as an adult that it formed a lot of my attitude toward stuff and why i like collecting things and have so much trouble throwing things away. a really good book that i think more people should know about!
