Jenika

Every time my mom brought me to Walden Books, I was immediately drawn to the covers of these. I don't think I actually convinced her to bring one home for me for a while since I was more of a fairy tale kid and she was worried I wouldn't like them, but once I got one I read them all.

I remember finding this in our fifth grade reading room and being absolutely entranced. I later read her entire Darkover series. I...do not recommend googling more to learn about her life.

I don't remember anything from these books, but I do remember being very moved by the plights of small mice and reading all about them. I keep meaning to revisit the series.

This one's a bit hard to admit to because I realized over time that Piers Anthony is a HUGE creep (which really should have been evident when I read That One Book Of His as a teen), but I adored the Xanth series as a kid. I got the first book in a seventh grade Scholastic catalogue (in restrospect, it REALLY should not have been in there) and immediately bought every single Xanth book I could find. I believe I had at least 30 of them. I also bought a book cover so I could bring them to school because the covers generally were inappropriate for school.

This was an older childhood book, but it set off my interest in science fiction. I definitely bought the book based on there being dragons on the cover (look, I was a simple kid with simple needs) and was confused when it started out with space travel and planet colonization. It sparked an interest in the idea and I started looking for more scifi.

While all Dr. Seuss was a target of my early school library usage, I can specifically remember reading this one with my parents. I believe I liked the actual story of the Sneetches more, but that was in a cartoon version I had on VHS, not the book.

I am awful with scary things. AWFUL! And yet I remember picking this up in the school library every time it was available and freaking myself out just looking at the pictures.

I have a feeling this largely shaped my sense of humor as a kid. I've always loved fairy tales and a set of ridiculous ones was just the ticket. I loved the art as well. I actually did a (terrible) animation of it in undergrad, but it may no longer exist.

Could I tell you any of the stories in this book? Nope. But I vividly remember searching for it on every one of our frequent trips to the Kihei public library as a kid. I believe there was a red fairy book as well, but I liked blue more. The color, I mean, not the stories; I have NO idea what was in either one.

The resurgence of Frog and Toad as gay meme icons has been delightful. What charming stories of togetherness!