First Day Ice-Breaker: Fave Childhood Book

Today, to break the ice on the first day of class, I asked each of my sophomores to share his or her favorite childhood book.  I love to ask this question on the first day--students tend to have strong feelings about their favorite picture books, or the first novel they remember reading on their own.  I especially love watching their faces light up as they remember what they were like as little kids, and it's fun to listen to them as they say, "I loved that book too!"   And, since I have two young bookworms at home I'm always on the lookout for new suggestions for bedtime reads.

This year, I was once again surprised by the wide variety of responses I got.  In my morning class, my students tended to pick novels they'd read when they were in elementary or middle school:  The Hunger Games, Twilight, Eragon, Treasure Island, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Secret Garden, the Harry Potter books, the Hardy Boys series. One student recalled an abridged version of Pride and Prejudice, and another reminded me of one of my favorites from when I was a girl, The Twenty-One Balloons.  Only one student in that class went far enough back to Go Dog, Go.

My afternoon class, though, recalled some classics from way back:  The Magic Treehouse series, The Rainbow Fish; Goodnight Moon; Are You My Mother? (one of my daughters' all-time faves); Green Eggs and Ham; The Missing Piece; Oh, the Places You'll Go.  They introduced me to some books I hadn't heard of:  Tilly and the Wall;  Good Job, Oliver.  And one student told me that James Clavell's Shogun was one of his favorites because he's very interested in southeast Asia.

The books we read when we are young--the stories, the characters, the illustrations, the themes--tend to stay with us long after we believe we've outgrown them, and many of these texts form a common language that we can all connect with. These books ignited our young imaginations and captivated us at a time when everything was new and possible.  I hope that my students will be able--and willing-- to continue to tap into that childlike wonder even now as they embark on their own adventures this year.