IWSG Post June 4 - Childhood Books

The awesome co-hosts for the June 4 posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, Pat Garcia, Kim Lajevardi,  Melisa Maygrove, and Jean Davis!

June 4 question - What were some books that impacted you as a child or young adult? 

"Impacted" is probably understating things. Books were my lifeline as a kid. I grew up in a damp, dark, unfinished basement in the middle of nowhere. There was no cable TV or internet...or bedrooms...or even windows. What was supposed to be a temporary situation while our house was being built over top of the basement turned into years of substandard living conditions. Thank goodness for the public library. Each week, I checked out a big stack of books into which I could escape. I read every Star Wars title they had. My favourite was the Jedi Apprentice series by Jude Watson. It followed young Obi-Wan Kenobi during his time as Qui-Gon's padawan. I also devoured the Young Jedi Knights series by Kevin J Anderson about Han and Leia's children. Those books were so much better than Rey and Kylo! 

I read a lot of fantasy, including Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. I read all of The Babysitters' Club, The Boxcar Children, I Spy, and the Mandy books. When I was old enough that my parents stopped monitoring what I was allowed to read, I jumped into Harry Potter with both feet. Twilight and The Hunger Games were some other faves of mine during my college years. 

I always had a good relationship with books, and I've tried to pass that on to my kids. So far, they love to read. I hope someday they'll want my old copies of Jedi Apprentice!