Love at first read

Valentine's Day is just around the corner! What a perfect opportunity to talk about the one great love all of the bloggers here share: the love of reading.

For many of us, reading has been an integral part of our lives since early childhood, but we discovered books in different ways. And we each have a book in mind that is very much responsible for the discovery of all the rest of the books that followed...it's the book that made us first fall in love with reading. We're calling it our "love at first read" list and we're very grateful for the titles that comprise it. 

What about you? What book first ignited our passion to read? Share it with us here or on social media at #loveatfirstread.

• Michael: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis. "The characters, the story, its complex world – all of it encouraged me to keep reading more books to discover worlds I could not even imagine."
• Anne: Amy’s Eyes by Richard Kennedy. "I have a lot of books that I remember fondly getting excited about but this one stays with me so much because I remember being so proud of how huge a book it was to read on my own, but also that I was so able to visualize the world I was reading about in my mind. I think that was the first time I truly did that all on my own."
• Kristen: "The first book that made me fall in love with reading was Searching for David’s Heart by Cherie Bennett (a book that I ordered through Scholastic Reading Club!). It was the first book I ever read that made me cry, and it made me realize just how powerful the written word can be!"
• Brittany: "The entire Harry Potter series made me fall in love with reading. I remember eagerly waiting by the mailbox for my pre-ordered copy of Harry Potter, and then reading the entire book nonstop from start to finish in two days flat!"
• Alex: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. "My mom would always read The Giving Tree to me and my brother. I remember loving each time my mom would read  this book aloud to us. To this day, my brother and I still have our copies of The Giving Tree (along with the many other books we have collected since then!)"
• Me: The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. My parents read this book to me and my siblings when we were very young. I immediately latched on to Toad, who I thought was the most outrageous character I'd ever met. I remember my sister and I loved the book so much, we asked to have it on tape as well, and played it often while we were falling asleep.