What Book Made the Biggest Impact on your Life?

I have always been a good reader.  I loved school, enjoyed going to the library and would rather draw or write than play outside most of the time.  I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up from the first time I helped a little boy sitting next to me in first grade.  But my passion for reading didn't develop until the fifth grade.

In fifth grade I learned about the presidents, was a school patrol and I fell in love with reading. Everyday after lunch we put our metal lunchboxes away and settled in our desks to hear our teacher read aloud from a chapter book.  The one that I remember the best is:  Where the Red Fern Grows  by: Wilson Rawls 


I was a ten year old kid living in the suburbs. Having no schema for this story's setting caused me to really use my imagination.  I was transported to the Ozarks of Oklahoma, with a little boy saving his money penny by penny to have enough to buy two coonhound pups for companionship and to help him "treeing" raccoons.  And even though I had nothing in common with the character in this story, I felt like I was there with him in his tragedies and triumphs.  I hung on every word as my teacher read this story aloud.  I dreaded the moment she would close the pages for the day.  Tears leaked from my eyes as the story ended and I furiously wiped my face before my classmates would notice.  I hated the story to end.

This book impacted my life the most because from that day on I always had a book ready to read.  I tried to read all the Newbery award winning books, the entire Little House on the Prairie series and any books written by Judy Blume.  I chose the specialty of reading/language arts as a teacher and enjoyed transporting my students to that place that my teacher had taken me, surrounded by the magical words of a story.  I have grown up to be an avid reader myself.  I surround my own kids with books and even though my 14 year old thinks she has outgrown read alouds, I hear her slip into the room while I'm reading to my 7 year olds. 

Other bloggers sharing their posts from the fall blog challenge can be found here :)