Happy International Literacy Day!

September 8 is International Literacy Day. If you visit the International Reading Association's web site, you'll see that more than 780 million adults worldwide do not know how to read and write. Two-thirds of that number are women. And somewhere between 94 and 115 million children lack access to education.

I learned to read at a young age, and I had three younger brothers (and sometimes the neighborhood dog) to read myriads of books to. In my family, reading has always been an important and valued pastime. Today, I'm grateful to have been raised and educated in a literate family and country. I just can't imagine life without books and the written word.

In honor of International Literacy Day, here are some of my favorite books throughout childhood, books that made me the reader and writer I am today!

A Bear Called Paddington

 

Stone Soup

The Hungry Thing 

 

The Giving Tree

Are You My Mother?

The Berenstein Bears and Too Much Junk Food

Green Eggs and Ham

 

Amelia Bedelia 

Mr. Popper's Penguins

  

Sarah, Plain and Tall

 

Little House on the Prairie

 

A Little Princess 

The Betsy-Tacey Treasury

Island of the Blue Dolphins

And, more recently....

The Harry Potter series--even though I read them as an adult!

What were some of YOUR favorite books growing up?

from J. D.

"Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them--if you want to. Just as some day, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."

~ J. D. Salinger ~