Childhood Memories

So the other day Tink had a post up about her favorite childhood book. Since I loved mine so much, I thought I'd do my own post rather than post a comment to hers.....Thanks for the idea!

So when I was in school, I was always just on the edge of the really bright kids - I was tested for ELP but fell short by just a few points. When I got to fourth grade, they decided to take all of us budding intellectuals and stick us in with a fifth grade class - we were the only one's in the school who got to do this. I was pretty fun....we did mostly fifth grade work except I remember we did a special segment where we studied the history of the state of Florida intensely (that was really fun and interesting) and we also had story time.....

If I remember correctly, the teacher's name was Mrs. Sutter. She would usually pick and read short stories to us, and golly if I can't remember how often she read, but I remember one in particular. It was the first time she'd actually read something novel length to us, and it was "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls (check the link for a synopsis of the story).

I loved this book so much, the next time the book fair came around I told Mom, if she'd just give me money for that book, that was all I had to have and no others. This was a big deal too, 'cause I *always* wanted books from the book fair, and I could find several I would like to have, but usually ended up having to cut my list down to two or three I really, really wanted.

So as soon as I got that book home, I re-read it...and re-read it....and re-read it. At this point I could probably tell you word for word exactly how the story goes, and I still have that original copy I got from the bookfair in fourth grade on my book shelf. Sure, now it's surrounded by more adult books by John Grisham, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and VC Andrews, but it's still one of my all time favorites. As a matter of fact, I think as soon as I'm done with the current book I'm reading, I'll re-read again!