Armchair BEA: General Fiction--Life Changing Books

SO. Life changing books? LET'S DO THIS.

When I was little, maybe 5 or 6, my teacher read this to the class.

And that was it. I was suddenly loving books. (Strangely, I NEVER read the Magic Tree House Series and the ones I did read? I remember thinking they were too easy and too boring and too short. I was a strange kid. I also researched killer mermaids.) But I never really read anything BUT Boxcar Children until I discovered:

her. Nancy Drew. 

The Nancy Drew books took me 1.5 years to completely read (since I was also into Sailor Moon at the time. Seriously. WEIRD KID.) I read all of them. the yellow books, the comics, the ones with the elementary Nancy Drew, the others--all of them. Every. Single. One.

You know, I used to go to my school library every day before school and for 15 minutes after school. So maybe that's why I became such close friends with my librarian when she urged me to read this.

And...I loved it. It was wonderful, it was real, it made my little 9 year old self think and it was the first time I truly loved a character. So I read more and more of Sharon Creech's books. She was my first favorite author. Even the author of Nancy Drew couldn't compare in my little eyes. 

I read Ruby Holler first of course. 

Then Chasing Redbird. 

Then Hate that Cat. Love That Dog. 

Absolutely Normal Chaos (which absolutely SCANDALIZED me with it's kissing scene at the end. But I may have read that part over and over, glancing over my shoulder guiltily. WHAT. It was an adorable scene!) 

Heartbeat.

Replay

The Wanderer

I never could finish Walk Two Moons though! But I even read her picture book. A Fine, Fine School. 

And I absolutely adored all these books. They were beautiful, wonderful, absolutely stunning. They were heartbreaking. But out of all of these, none touched me like Heartbeat. I forget what it was that made me love it so much--but I do remember reading it over and over, clutching it as I walked to school. It was...hopeful. And I think that was OFFICIALLY when my love for books started.

But that's not where the story ends. I was still hesitant to read any fantasy and my mom told me to read only award winning books. But then again, librarian to the rescue. I visited her and asked her for recommendations. And what did she say? That I already read most of her recommended books. But on her desk, there was a ripped up book, completely torn, half taped up. She was fixing it. But I could still see the cover. And it looked like this.

Yep. The PJO series was my librarian's sidekick.

I was intrigued. Why were they running? Why the fog? Was that an EYE? And I asked to borrow it. She said to come back the next day--so I did. And even though I'd never read the series before, even though this was just the second book, I snatched it and devoured it. And then went back to get books one and three. And read them out of order--but I still understood everything!

So yes. Rick Riordan definitely made a humongous change in my life. But what sparked my YA addiction? None other than this series. 

But that's a story for next time.