Day 1571: Reading and Writing

While it's been nearly 16 years since I was last in Kindergarten, I can still clearly remember some of my first favorite books. One in particular could probably be better described by my mother, but I remember it because it was one of two books I read constantly on a trip to Walt Disney World. The first book, which was called Up, Up and Away, or something similar, was about a rocketship...and that's absolutely all I remember about the plot of the book. Regardless, I remember reading it at dinner at The Garden Grill that trip, showing it to Chip and Dale as they stopped by the table. I also remember the mac & cheese, which, quite honestly, I could go for right about now. 

The second, and the one I remember the most, was called Chick’s Walk and was about a little chick who roamed around meeting new animals. Chick would say hello to each one, from the pigs to the cows to the alligator…wait. Alligator? Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. (That’s how the book ends…because of course, a chick probably doesn’t want to meet an alligator.

After that, there was only one book amongst the slew of others I read: The Ghost Family Meets Its Match. It was about a family of ghosts who, at the start of the book, live happily in their ghostly retreat. Then, out of the blue, another family moves into the house, and the ghost family devises a plan to haunt the newcomers out of the building. Only it doesn’t work…because the new family is a bunch of werewolves! They lived happily ever (eternally?) after in the house after that. I must have checked out that book at least every other week for a good few years in Elementary school, and I distinctly remember making my parents read it to me until I had it memorized…and then I read it by myself hidden in their closet. Why the closet? I have no idea, but I do know that it’s the one book I’d give anything to have a copy of now that I’m older.

While I wonder if The Ghost Family Meets Its Match is still hidden somewhere in my elementary school library (even though I wore out the binding before I even left), a few other books also come to mind, like all those series I read anywhere between second grade and the end of middle school: Heartland, Warriors, Little House on the Prairie, Harry Potter, The Princess Diaries (but definitely not in that exact order). Each was completely different, but like Chick's Walk and Up, Up, and Away, they all contributed to one important element of my reading and writing: a personal style. 

We all love different books, and we all write different ways, and the way I look at it, the books we read throughout our life make up a unique recipe for our writing style, as we take little bits and pieces from things we've read and apply them to our own style. I mean, I can't say that I'm about to write a story about a chick and an alligator, but I definitely love short funny moments in my writing, and that's exactly something that was in Chick's Walk all those years ago. So reading is important, my friends, especially if you want to be a writer. 

Have a magical day!