I guess I always have been a reader. My mum read books to me all the time and when I got old enough I started reading small novels on my own. I was about 9 when I really started to get into novel reading and out of picture books. I started on those Rainbow Magic books, if you're a girl in Australia you'll know what I'm on about. There were so many of them and I would read them in a solid day which was something I was immensely proud of. They began as the rainbow fairies and then there were all sorts of fairies. It was amazing, probably the best thing my 9 year old self had ever encountered. I remember my parents being in awe of the fact I just sat on the couch and read these books all day. I remember loving the fairies and I loved imagining them in their pretty fairy clothes and doing their pretty fairy things. The rainbow fairies were my favourites and I would always draw them.
After these, I encountered Go Girls which you will also be well acquainted with is you were a girl growing up in Australia. I still have a few of these laying around, I used to have the biggest collection but I think my parents store them in our shed now, I hope. They were so relatable and fun. I would manage to read these in a day too. I was so obsessed that I even got the Go Girl diary set, I thought I was going to be one of these girls one day. I wrote about my crush and my friends and all that jazz, just like them. Gahh! Just thinking about them gives me so much damn nostalgia. I was introduced to them by my aunty who happens to be a primary school teacher, she told me all the girls in her class loved them so I wanted to be like them. The one on the right was the first one I ever read, I remember it so well. They were written by a selection of about three or maybe more different authors. 
Next, I loved these books about magic kittens or puppies that these kids would just stumble upon. They were always in my school library. I remember I loved them because I love kittens and puppies. It took me so long to find these again, I couldn't remember for the life of me what they were called. They're called Magic Kitten or Magic Puppy. Easy enough. The one thing I didn't like was that they all had such weird names like this one kittens name was Prince Flame. I can barely remember anything about them other than the fact that I'm pretty sure the kitten or puppy in question wasn't really a kitten or puppy they were like huge big beasts and they spoke. I assume they solved a lot of things. I also remember that they left after they completed whatever mission I presume they were on. Anyway, my point it that they were pivotal in my becoming as a reader.
Now we move onto the slightly older child. Around 11 and 12 when my reading got slightly more sophisticated. By sophisticated I mean, I was obsessed with Jacqueline Wilson. Fun fact, I knew a girl who shared the name. I still have her books cluttered around my house. This was a huge point for me as a reader. I read her books religiously. I cried at Vicky Angel. I laughed 
at Tracy Beaker. They were usually very dark, like Vicky Angel and the Cat Mummy and Love Lessons and My Sister Jodie. I liked it though, I liked the more serious adult themes. I liked the scandal of a girl trying to get with her teacher and I was interested in the more morbid reads. The Cat Mummy will stick with me for a long time, I remember reading it when my cat was very old, she was about 20. I think it was a couple weeks before she died actually and my whole family were on edge because we were just waiting for it to happen. The girl in Cat Mummy found her cat who passed of old age and who the family believed to be missing, curled up in her cupboard passed which I can't imagine how horrible. So the girl who was obviously not coping and who was also learning about mummies at the time, made a mummy out of her cat. I cried so much throughout this because I hate the idea of losing pets, it is so painful to me. I've lost three cats and two dogs and they all brought unimaginable grief. So that's probably one of the first reads that really stuck with me. They're the most monumental books for me because I really got connected with it all, I joined forums and used the site all the time.
After this stage and when I was becoming a teenager, I stopped reading a lot. Everyone at big and scary high school made fun of reading and I was desperate to fit in. I read a couple of books I loved which were Heidi and Pride and Prejudice. I loved Heidi which I picked out hastily from the library to read in English so when I finished that my English teacher recommended me Pride and Prejudice and I developed an interest in Classics which I didn't actually act upon until I was about 14. I still wasn't very much into reading like I had been, I was more interested in my new friends and the new boys. That Christmas I was making a list and I couldn't think what to ask for seeing as my whole list was already CDs so I was looking up good books and I found the Hunger Games so without really checking it out I chucked them on my list thinking I probably wasn't going to read them or like them. Never the less, my Nan and Pop gifted me the whole series on Christmas Day and I wasn't thrilled but still on Boxing Day, with nothing to do, I started to read. I loved it from the first page, I could not put it down, the next three days I spent in the armchair reading until I'd finished. I was so engrossed in it. Since then I've been hooked. My Christmas lists are now just a collection of books. My Nan and Pop have no idea what they started, or maybe they do since they keep giving me books. And, now I'm here a few years on. I've read so, so many books and I keep reading more. I'm writing a blog and I'm more involved with the reading world than I've ever been and honestly I couldn't be happier.
I'd love to hear about your reading journeys and I hope you enjoyed reading about mine!
at Tracy Beaker. They were usually very dark, like Vicky Angel and the Cat Mummy and Love Lessons and My Sister Jodie. I liked it though, I liked the more serious adult themes. I liked the scandal of a girl trying to get with her teacher and I was interested in the more morbid reads. The Cat Mummy will stick with me for a long time, I remember reading it when my cat was very old, she was about 20. I think it was a couple weeks before she died actually and my whole family were on edge because we were just waiting for it to happen. The girl in Cat Mummy found her cat who passed of old age and who the family believed to be missing, curled up in her cupboard passed which I can't imagine how horrible. So the girl who was obviously not coping and who was also learning about mummies at the time, made a mummy out of her cat. I cried so much throughout this because I hate the idea of losing pets, it is so painful to me. I've lost three cats and two dogs and they all brought unimaginable grief. So that's probably one of the first reads that really stuck with me. They're the most monumental books for me because I really got connected with it all, I joined forums and used the site all the time. After this stage and when I was becoming a teenager, I stopped reading a lot. Everyone at big and scary high school made fun of reading and I was desperate to fit in. I read a couple of books I loved which were Heidi and Pride and Prejudice. I loved Heidi which I picked out hastily from the library to read in English so when I finished that my English teacher recommended me Pride and Prejudice and I developed an interest in Classics which I didn't actually act upon until I was about 14. I still wasn't very much into reading like I had been, I was more interested in my new friends and the new boys. That Christmas I was making a list and I couldn't think what to ask for seeing as my whole list was already CDs so I was looking up good books and I found the Hunger Games so without really checking it out I chucked them on my list thinking I probably wasn't going to read them or like them. Never the less, my Nan and Pop gifted me the whole series on Christmas Day and I wasn't thrilled but still on Boxing Day, with nothing to do, I started to read. I loved it from the first page, I could not put it down, the next three days I spent in the armchair reading until I'd finished. I was so engrossed in it. Since then I've been hooked. My Christmas lists are now just a collection of books. My Nan and Pop have no idea what they started, or maybe they do since they keep giving me books. And, now I'm here a few years on. I've read so, so many books and I keep reading more. I'm writing a blog and I'm more involved with the reading world than I've ever been and honestly I couldn't be happier.I'd love to hear about your reading journeys and I hope you enjoyed reading about mine!
Ahhh I remember loving all these books. We have such similar reading journeys haha. I started reading novels with the Rainbow Magic and Go Girl series (the amount of these books I collected was ridiculous)!! I stopped reading when I started high school too and it was The Hunger Games that brought me back into reading. Loved hearing about your reading journey Brooklyn :D
ReplyDeleteHow funny!
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