I've been a reader for as long as I can remember. A lot of it probably has to do with my grandma. My mother and I lived with my grandparents shortly after I was born and until I was five years old, and I always remember having books, my grandma read to me constantly...
So, this is the reading evolution of ME!
I think I must have been three or four in this picture I'm not exactly sure. But I can tell you that my favorite books during this stage of my life had a lot to do with Sesame Street... as you might have noticed from my best friend Ernie. My favorite books during this time: Sesame Street books: I Can Do It Myself, Spring Cleaning, Grovers Book of Cute Little Baby Animals, The Sesame Street Pet Show& Show and Tell. I was actually a member of the Sesame Street "Book Club" so I have a ton of these books! And I still have these books packed away somewhere at my parents house... I was over there the other day and saw Grovers Book of Cute Little Baby Animals, it's stalking me.
Elementary school. This was a huge time of reading for me. They implemented the "Book-It" program and I never ate so much pizza in my life. I still have dozens and dozens of those pins! Books read during this stage of my life:
1st-3rd grade: Dr. Seuss. Anything by Dr. Seuss. The Amelia Bedelia books. The Mitten, The Stinky Cheese Man, The First Dog... I really liked Jan Brett... her books were so beautiful, BABY-SITTERS CLUB!
4th & 5th grade: Goosebumps (I think I own all of these! Wooohoo Scholastic Book Fairs!), The Incredible Journey, The Fledgling, Castle in the Attic, The Secret Garden, The Jungle Book, The Boxcar Children, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (based on the movie with Luke Perry... had the biggest crush on him!) & Number the Stars.
Middle school. Still a reading fool. At my school they had the "Star Books" program. You read a book and took a test, then you would get extra credit for Language Arts class or something like that. Only certain books were deemed "Star" worthy, but I read a lot regardless...
6-8th grade: The Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Giver, Anne Frank, Hatchet, Where the Read Fern Grows, and some more which I can't remember... this is hard.
High school. High school was more a time of reading requirement than reading for pleasure. But I enjoyed a lot of the required readings for school.
9-12th grade: Lord of the Flies, The Scarlett Letter, Flowers for Algernon, Great Expectations, To Kill a Mockingbird, Death of a Salesman, The Glass Menagerie...required. Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain... Michael Crichton, what can I say, he did it for me.
College. Reading for pleasure ceased completely during college. If it wasn't a textbook or a required reading for class, it didn't happen. It was hard to work reading for pleasure into my schedule when I went to school full time and worked full time. Most of my free time was spent studying. I think one of the only books I read durning this time was maybe Harry Potter...
Now. After college, I finally had a life again! And it included a reading life... which is a lot of what you see here on the blog, I found enjoyment in YA fiction and I am so glad that I did!
One thing is for certain, reading has always been a big part of my life and I think that it always will be.