Share Your Nostalgia – Round 2 Wrap up (and my picks)

As I have said all week, I wasn’t sure how a second round of nostalgia would go. I was pleasantly surprised to see the stats for the posts of my guest bloggers. Speaking of them, I need to thank Randy, Christian, Max, Stewart, and Dave for all taking time to write a piece for this feature. Each of them have blogs that they write and have a life off the blogging grid. The fact that they chose to participate means a lot to me. Thank you guys!

This round’s topic was to write about your favorite childhood book. It may have been something you were read by your parents or grandparents. It could have been the first book you ever read by yourself. Perhaps it is a book that you read to your own children. The posts from my guests ranged from western heroes to wild things. There were groups of adventure seeking kids to good ole Dr. Seuss.

Dave’s books yesterday tie in with one of mine today. He had two Little Gold Books. Those books lined the book shelves in my room. I had SO many of them. I had Disney books, books with Sesame Street Characters, and just about every Little Golden Book you can imagine. The one that stands alone for me was one I remember my mom reading to me.

As a kid, I naturally had a lot in common with this poky little pup. I always seemed to lag behind. One time I was so interested in something at the mall, I didn’t realize my dad had left the store!

It is not the story that I love so much, it’s that I remember mom reading it to me. I made sure to buy this when my first son was born. I remember reading it to him and thinking, “Why did I like this book so much?” The answer was – mom.

Fourth grade was a milestone year for me in many ways. Mrs. Gallop was my teacher and she read us many books throughout the year. As a matter of fact, the ones I am about to mention have forever stuck with me. I cannot wait until my kids are old enough for me to read those books to them.

The first one was How To Eat Fried Worms.

Ah, childhood! Billy has made a bet. If he wins, he gets $50, which he will use to buy a minibike. What does he have to do? Eat 15 worms over 15 days. I remember all of us getting grossed out as he began to eat these worms.

Next, it was Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

Peter is a fourth grader. His younger brother, Fudge, is always doing something. So much that Peter feels that compared to Fudge, he is … “nothing.” Throughout the book, you see Peter’s frustrations and how he often gets caught up in his brother’s chaos. As an older brother, I remember thinking of my little brother, Christopher, and just how much he was like Fudge!

Finally, Mrs. Gallop read us a classic. James and the Giant Peach.

James is forced to live with two evil aunts. He discovers a giant peach in his yard. He, and a bunch of insects, use the peach to get away from it all. Their adventure takes them across the ocean and all the way to New York City! I remember the book had a few small cuss words, which made us all laugh. This was one of those books that we all were engrossed in this story!

I give kudos to the guest bloggers who were able to come up with just one. For my childhood, there were so many that stuck with me. I was so grateful to those who introduced me to reading.

I had hoped my wife would join us and blog about her favorite childhood book, but she is shy and said she wasn’t sure about it. So I will tell you that she still has a copy of her favorite book, and reads it to our kids often.

I had never head of this one, but it’s actually cute.

I have a book that makes me think of each of my kids. For Dante’ (Now 22), it’s The Three Little Kittens.

I read this more times than I can count. When I was away on a radio trip, I actually recorded it onto DVD so I could “read” it while it was away. For Dimitri (almost 18), it was …

Both kids actually liked this, but it is Dimitri who noticed and laughed at the silly faces on some of the snowmen in the book. For Ella (5 next week), it was ….

This book will forever warm my heart and remind me of my sweet baby girl sitting on my lap. I loved when it got to the point where she would finish the lines with me. Wonderful memories with this book. Andrew’s book was one that his speech therapist gave him…

This makes so much sense for him. He has always been fascinated with tools, plugs, flashlights and everything that has buttons!! He loves interacting with this book

Last one, I promise! Both of my kids loved this next book….

I gotta tell you, it was hard to read to them the first time. I laughed as I read it! It’s a future classic!!

What was your favorite book as a child? Please tell me in the comments. If you’d ever be interested in taking part in this feature, let me know. I’d love to feature YOU here.

This blog has always been an outlet for me to share my experiences, my memories, and my life with you. I hope that my posts cause you to look back at your life at your fond memories, too. Thank you for being here.

Thanks again to those who participated in Round 2. I’ll begin to think about Round 3, if readers would be interested in that. If so, I think I’ll run it in April. Does that work for you?

Thanks for sharing with me…. Keith

Bedtime Books

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Today’s blog comes from a “Daily Writing Prompt”. The prompt reads: “Do you remember your favorite book from your childhood?” This prompt comes after I stumbled on a set of books that I had as a kid in a used book store.

The Charlie Brown Dictionary was a set of 8 books that had definitions of words. I remember my parents ordered these from somewhere and every month a new volume would arrive. I loved when a new volume would arrive. They had the entire set at this book store for the bargain price of $2! How can I pass that up?!

The writing prompt also comes a week or so after the baby shower. One of the things we want for our baby is a good library of books to read. We did receive some books at the shower, some of which I recognized, and some that I didn’t. Some of the books we received were books that I had read to my boys, and I am excited to share them with our daughter, too!

As I thought about the prompt, I don’t know that I can actually recall my “favorite” book as a kid. There are, however, many that I do remember vividly. I thought it might be fun to sit and off the top of my head, write about some of the ones I remember. I am sitting down to write this blog knowing that it will be incomplete. It will be incomplete, because I know I am going to probably miss a lot of them. Here goes:

The Poky Little Puppy

When I was growing up I think I had every one of the “Little Golden Books”. Of all of them, this is the one that immediately comes to mind when I think about my childhood. I remember buying it when my oldest was a baby and reading it to him. I really didn’t remember the story up until that point, but for me to remember it for so long, I am just guessing it was a favorite. I remember there being many Disney stories that were in the Little Golden Book collection.

Another Little Golden Book that I had, and eventually shared with my sons was a Sesame Street book.

The Monster at the End of This Book

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As a child of the 70’s, I watched a lot of PBS. Sesame Street was a show I watched faithfully. Mr. Hooper was still alive when I was watching Sesame Street! The adventures of Ernie and Bert, The Count, Big Bird, Grover, and Kermit helped me learn letters and numbers. I mentioned in a previous blog that I had an Ernie hand puppet. I also had a stuffed Grover. I liked him cause he was always so silly. Grover is the star of this book. It is such a fun book to read and I am sure that it made me laugh as a kid, as much as it made my boys laugh! I can’t wait to share this one with Ella.

Dr. Seuss Books

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I probably had every single Dr. Seuss book ever written! They were very popular with my generation. I have found that people either love or hate his books. I had a friend who just loathed when her son would pick Green Eggs and Ham to read. I could never figure out why.

I remember I was doing mornings on B95 and it was Dr. Seuss’ birthday. We had one of the contestants from American Idol (Phil Stacey) in town to do a show for us. We were talking about Dr. Seuss books with our newsman, Hal Maas earlier in the show, and he couldn’t remember half of them (which we razzed him about often). We actually had Phil Stacey read “Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?” on the air! The book has all kinds of silly noises, and Phil played it up on the air! It was so silly to hear him reading this, but he told us how much fun it was!

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I am sure I will be reading Ella many of his books.

Three Little Kittens

This was one of Dante’s favorite books. I think he loved it because of the cat noises I used to make while reading it to him. I am almost positive that this was another book my mom read to me. This is a must for me to read to Ella, especially since we have two cats at home.

Like I said, I KNOW I am forgetting others that were probably read to me as a child. I am hoping that those of you who are close to my age will offer us some of YOUR favorites. By doing that, maybe you’ll refresh my memory about other books from my childhood.

Books I Read to the Boys

The books above were books I loved growing up, and read to my boys. The following books are some of my favorites that I remember reading to them at bedtime. These will all be in Ella’s library, because I love them all!

Goodnight Moon

This book is so simple. I loved saying goodnight to all of the objects and having the kids point to them. Dante’ would always make a “Squeak” noise when we said good night to the mouse.

Rainbow-Fish

This book came in very handy when trying to teach about sharing and being selfish. The moral of the story and showing how sharing with others can make everyone happy is a great lesson that even adults need to remember.

The Kissing Hand

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This one was voted one of the Teacher’s Top 100 Picture Books for Children. I read this to both boys especially as it got closer to when they were going to preschool. It’s really a great book to help children deal with the “separation” issue of going to school. Our book came with all these little red heart stickers and I think Dante’ used to put them on his backpack or pencil box.

The Going To Bed Book

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Sandra Boynton has so many great books for kids! I loved reading this one every night. It was so fun and her characters are just so cute! This is just one of MANY of her books that I loved.

I’m Thankful Each Day

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Probably one of my top 5 books to read! One of my favorite bible verses is I Thessalonians 5:18 which reads: “In every thing give thanks”. Raising children, we want them to be thankful! We tell them to say “please” and “thank you”. What I love about this book is that you see this little boy who is full of gratitude. He is thankful for big things in his life, as well as the small things. He is so grateful – and happy! It is a must for Ella’s bookshelf!

Snowmen At Night

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I love this book for so many reasons. Remember when you were a kid and you’d make your snowman? Then the next day you’d come out and he’d look a little different? It always made me wonder what he’s been up to! That’s exactly what this book is about. What do snowmen do at night?! This book is just so much fun to read and the illustrations are a hoot, too!

This book was a favorite of both my sons! Caralyn Buehner wrote a few sequels to this too (Snowmen At Christmas, Snowmen At Play, Snowmen At Work, Snowmen All Year)! My goal is to have all of these in Ella’s library.

Reading Dads Rock!

Reading is SO important! The great stories that are found in books will fuel a child’s imagination for years and years! A parent reading to their child is one of the greatest things in the world. It is quality time together. It is bonding time. It is something that I cannot wait to do with our daughter. Bring on the bedtime stories!!

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