{"id":3803,"date":"2016-10-12T15:28:05","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T05:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=3803"},"modified":"2016-12-02T16:26:41","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T06:26:41","slug":"the-books-that-stayed-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=3803","title":{"rendered":"THE BOOKS THAT STAYED WITH ME"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bttm-front-196x300\"<\/a>The Book That Made Me<\/em>, edited by Judith Ridge, is a collection of 32 stories from (mainly Australian) YA and children\u2019s writers. The royalties from sales of the book all go to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.<\/p>\n

As Judith Ridge says in the introduction, there\u2019s a growing interest in writing, and in writers\u2019 lives. (As an aside, I wish there wasn\u2019t. My life has never been extraordinary, except inside my own head \u2013 no larger-than-life adventures, no dreadful traumas, no exotic locales \u2013 and has consisted for years now of a lot of sitting on my bottom in front of a screen, which should not be of great interest to anybody). Thinking about the authors whose work she loved and admired, she began to wonder about their formative reading. Which book made them fall in love, made them understand, made them laugh, made them feel angry or safe or challenged. \u201cMade them readers, made them writers \u2013made them the person they are today? And so I asked them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

32 writers \u2013 people like Fiona Wood, Kate Constable, Shaun Tan, Markus Zusak, Simmone Howell, Alison Croggon, Cath Crowley, Simon French, Ursula Dubosarsky \u2013 when asked, \u201cWhat is the book that made you?\u201d give readers much more than a title. The books that made them give an often intimate and moving glimpse into their lives. In nearly every one, I felt a spark of recognition and fellow feeling. Reading and enjoying the various memoirs and essays in the collections made me wonder, of course, what I\u2019d have written if I\u2019d been asked.<\/p>\n

\"well-done-secret-seven\"<\/a>Perhaps I could say the Magic Faraway Tree<\/em> and Secret Seven<\/em> series \u2018made me\u2019; but though they were certainly the books that turned me on to independent reading, they\u2019re not the ones that have stayed with me. I hope I\u2019m not being a book snob here \u2013 I think of those Blyton books with great affection, and know they provided that important first step.<\/p>\n

The book that made me? It\u2019s actually a difficult question. A book? The<\/em> book? I think I will ask myself a slightly different question. Which book has stayed with you? It will have to be plural, as well. Which books<\/em>, for like many of the writers in this collection I was, as Fiona Wood puts it \u201caddicted to books\u201d. Though I was happy and loved at home, with imaginative, understanding parents \u2013 an artist father and a frankly \u2018bookish\u2019 teacher mother – life out in the world of school and friends was often challenging, exhausting, incomprehensible and at times simply miserable. I had trouble learning to read, but as soon as I mastered the art \u2013 thank you, Enid Blyton! – books were a constant for me, whether delight, diversion, distraction, escape or consolation.<\/p>\n

Which books have stayed? I was going to try to keep it at ten, but a dozen is old school which, really, suits me best. These are books that I read and re-read when I was in primary school. They’re still on my shelves; they\u2019re worn and a bit tatty but they glow for me with a kind of golden aura of use and love.
\nIn no particular order:
\nThe Wolves<\/em> of Willoughby Chase <\/em>by Joan Aiken
\nLittle House in the Big Woods by<\/em> Laura Ingalls Wilder
\nMistress Masham\u2019s Repose <\/em>by TH White
\nThe Children of Green Knowe <\/em>by L M Boston
\nThe Little White Horse <\/em>by Elizabeth Goudge
\nLittle Women <\/em>by Louisa Alcott
\nThe Midnight Folk <\/em>by John Masefield
\nAnne of Green Gables by <\/em>L M Montgomery
\nThe Secret Garden<\/em> and A Little Princess <\/em>by Frances Hodgson Burnett
\nSeven Little Australians <\/em>by Ethel Turner
\nThe Good Master<\/em> by Kate Seredy
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The Book That Made Me<\/em> ed. Judith Ridge Walker Books Australia $19.95<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Book That Made Me, edited by Judith Ridge, is a collection of 32 stories from (mainly Australian) YA and children\u2019s writers. The royalties from sales of the book all go to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. As Judith Ridge says … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3803"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3805,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803\/revisions\/3805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}