Journal Entry #2

Prompt:  Write about your favorite book from your childhood.

Response:  My favorite book as a child, and even now, was Bill Peet’s Autobiography.  It was the first biographical novel that I read.  I think the first time I read it was in second or third grade.  Even though it is the story of Bill Peet’s life, it has a magical quality to the way it is written that makes it so enjoyable.  And the illustrations are incredible!  Bill Peet was an illustrator for Walt Disney’s storyboard department, and in his autobiography he recreates many of the drawings he did.  Writing about it now makes me want to read it again.  I love looking at the cartoony pictures and bringing them to life in my mind.

Prompt:  Write about your first memory of reading during your childhood.

Response:  The first memory I have of reading is from when I was around two.  My stepdad is flying me into my bedroom in our old apartment.  He brings me over to the bookshelf on the wall and lets me pick a book.  I grab a big one with a shiny red cover.  It has a picture of some animal on it that I don’t know.  We sit down, with me curled up in my stepdad’s lap.  I listen as he reads the story to me.  The words mean nothing to me and the pictures are only something to look at.  I don’t know why there are pictures of animals on the page.  Once in awhile, the page turns and there are new words and new pictures.  Again, the page turns and everything changes.