Why do some books stay with us long past their first reading? Especially books from childhood- books many people assume we outgrow, and becoming older readers, move on from.I mark time by what I was reading. I can't remember a time when I didn't do this, or when the name of a book didn't evoke a strong related image or memory.
One of my earliest vivid memories is of reading 'Charlotte's Web' by E.B. White with my mother. I am about 4 years old. This is the first book I will remember both having read TO me and then picking up and reading for myself.
I see the pale blue paint of my bedroom and the pastel colored flowers on the wallpaper. I can see Gareth William's simple, but detailed line drawings which somehow convey so perfectly the messy ribbon in Fran's ponytail, the bristly hairs on a pig's back, the cunning eye of a clever rat.
When I look at these pictures now, I marvel at how I can see them in the same way as I did then- with an absolute certainty and clarity that is also part of the that first early memory of reading.There are very good reasons why this is the first book that many people remember reading or having read to them.
My mother gave me all three of E.B White's wonderful children's books: Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan. I remember having each one read aloud to me and then pouring over the pages on my own and then one day, I was just reading them. All on my own.
Each of these books tells a story about a misfit : a lonely pig who is loved by both a girl and a spider, a mouse who lives like a small person within a caring family (one of the best things about this book is how the fact that Stuart is a mouse is taken so perfectly in stride by his family), but who longs for adventure, and a swan whose story is an updated version of the Ugly Duckling, a swan looking for his voice and to fit into his world.
These are perfect examples of a subtle and superbly skilled writer practicing his craft. I didn't know anything about E.B. White when I read these books. I'm not sure if I even realized at that point that actual people WROTE books. Later in life I would read many of E.B. White's literary essays and realize that my early children's books in no way talked down to my age or restricted this talented from writing at the top of his game.
And these books taught me so many lessons!
Even at such a young age, the sacrifice of Charlotte and her selflessness taught me that happy endings are not always completely happy and that sometimes we have to work harder to help someone else.
Stuart Little taught me that the love and perfect acceptance of a family is a great and valuable thing- but also a launching point to send you out into a world of adventures and a safe haven to welcome you back again.
Louis the swan finds friendship from Sam, who takes him to school and helps to pay his father's debt of a stolen trumpet and in the process taught me about the value of both belonging and having loyal friends- and at the same time the importance of valuing yourself and your uniqueness, something which each of these books celebrates.
These three books, they are the real beginning for me. I know there were board books and picture books that came before them and believe me there are many more that came after. But E.B. White was my first real love and Charlotte's Web was the first book I read aloud to my son.
This is just a short post. One, I hope, of many more to come. But we all have to start somewhere, and for me, that start is Charlotte's Web.
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