Did your parents read “chapter books” aloud to you when you were little? My mom would pick my sister and I up from school and drive our mini-van over to wait a half hour or so for my brother’s school to let out. In those little time slots, which could have been filled with whines of boredom, we were transported by way of Little Women, Little House on the Prairie, Pippi Longstocking, Heidi, Five Little Peppers and various Maria Von Trapp biographies to lands far away from parking lots on Price Road in Lexington, KY. Lands where little girls can live in houses dug out of a hill, lift horses clear over their head and play the piano beautifully–even when dying of scarlet fever. How lucky we were to have such stories float through our brains and imaginations as we climbed into the backseat to sneakily tug on ballet leotards. How lucky to hear stories of strong, intelligent, resilient and kind women and girls–real OR imagined.

What books were you lucky enough to hear as a young pup? What stories invoke your reading nostalgia? Do you feel they shaped who you are today? Or at least what you enjoy reading?
(Book cover photo via here.)