Hi! I am Mariah, the new Library Assistant with the Scholastic Library and Archive. You can find me in the library working on cataloging wonderful books, providing answers to questions or books for requests, and trying not to get too swept up in the many different worlds that are held between the covers of the books here.
The hardest part about compiling a list for my bookprint was trying to remember which of the books that I had torn through had really stuck with me all my life. As a child I read books like most other kids ate candy - I just couldn’t stop and I NEEDED that pink ice cream eraser from Scholastic for reading the most books. As video games and television became more and more tempting, my parents made sure to instate a rule: I had to read for the same amount of time that I spent playing video games or watch television (thanks Mom and Dad!)
As I curated this list I found that there was a definite theme in the books that had made me who I am; they were a fantastic escape from the real world where I could learn and explore without the stressors of real life. After I had completed these books I felt like I could take on the world and, being a Floridian in New York City, I believe I have!
The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern (just kidding—William Goldman!) : My first Bookprint book is one that started with me watching a movie. I grew up with my brother who is 12 years my senior. Throughout my youth I was trying to catch up to him, and The Princess Bride was no exception. The first time I saw the movie I was terrified and stopped watching as soon as the first ROUS attacked. But, as I grew older, I finished the movie and watched it every chance I could get. Then the most miraculous thing happened - I realized that there was a book! I soon found myself engaging in a tradition of reading it once a year. The fact that The Princess Bride has stuck with me all of these years is less about the romantic aspect between Buttercup and Westley (though that did help) and more because of the simple fact that it encouraged me to commit to what I love and do whatever it takes to get it. I may not have had to face any ROUSs, but it sure made school a lot more bearable when I realized that I didn’t have to worry about a small human sized rat chasing me and that the classrooms were not the Pit of Despair.
Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce : This was the start to an amazing series - and an amazing author - that I could not put down and reread frequently. The first book in the “Song of the Lioness” series took hold of me like no other book about growing up a girl could. I grew up surrounded by boys in my family - I was the first and only girl born for the majority of my life. When you’re being taken on adventures in your stroller by your older brothers and boy cousins you kind of just have to hold on and hope they don’t hit any potholes… Alanna: The First Adventure is a book about a girl who decides that she wants to break the boundaries of being a female and dresses as a boy in order to become a knight. The series follows her as she not only holds her own against the boys, but also as she grows as a woman and person. I think this book - and others Pierce has written - helped me to grow up believing I could be a strong and confident woman no matter what the circumstances. It is so important for girls to have resilient role models as they grow up that tell them that despite the situation, you can always be you. (I actually had the chance to meet Tamora Pierce at Dragon Con!)
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner : I have always loved mysteries, and I believe The Boxcar Children is one of the reasons why. As a child these books intrigued me. The premise of orphans living in a boxcar was almost too much for my imagination to handle. Could this really happen? Could I make a refrigerator in a box car and keep milk cold? (The answer was ‘no, you live in Florida, it REALLY doesn’t work well and then you’re out a pint of milk and your parents are not too happy with you.’) The origin of these characters really stuck with me and taught me that you never really know where someone comes from or what they are dealing with. It has really been important to me as I’ve grown up and as I still grow up to practice kindness no matter what the circumstance because there are so many contextual things out there that you just don’t know or cannot fathom. I also think it was a gateway book for my obsession with Perry Mason novels when I was a teenager.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling : I could list the entire series, but this book was very important as a standalone volume. I was eight when the first book was released in the U.S. and just finding my foothold in the reading world. My parents, who were just glad I had stopped reading every billboard they drove by since I learned to read, found the book and started reading it to me every night before bed. Needless to say, after the first few chapters and a lot of “Oh, no, I can read to her again tonight!”s everyone would pile into my bedroom to listen to what was going to happen next. As I grew older I wasted no time in swiping the book from my parents as we all fought over our copy to read it. The first book was important because it showed me that reading could be something to connect over. It was a family affair, not just an activity you did individually. I kept up with the series every year when the books came out and I found that I learned a lot about myself - and the world - as I did so. I remember getting to Chapter 27 in Half-Blood Prince at four in the morning when everyone else in my aunt’s house was a sleep and throwing the book across the room and bursting into tears. But, more than any other book has ever done, Harry Potter helped me understand these tough topics and I have no idea what I would have done when my own Chapter 27 happened.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman : This is a more recent read than most of the other books on my list. It’s another one of those books I always go back to when I need to kick start my reading habits. Oddly enough, it’s another fantasy world full of things that will probably never happen to me, though it is tempting to think that there is an amazing underground world in the subway. This was a refresher book, in a way, that took me back to all of the books of my childhood that made me realize that despite the fact that I’m less of a child or teenager, I can still find books that change me and impact me in a way that is on a level not many other sources of entertainment can reach. Richard Mayhew, the main character, is a kind and caring person who finds himself in an adventure and world that he cannot leave because he just can’t say no. If that’s not the story of my life then I don’t know what is! As a new adult, I found that my adventures were just beginning and that getting outside my comfort zone, much like Richard did, was the most important part of growing up as a young adult and adult.
So there you have it -- all of the deepest crevices of my soul in the books that built me and shaped me! I can’t help but be thankful that I grew up with so many strong and inherently good fictional role models. I am not quite sure where I would be without them and I am eternally thankful to their authors, the editors, and publishers for helping me handle reality when I would much rather live in their fictional worlds.
