My Favorite Children's Book...

My favorite children's book is called "The Golden Key" by George MacDonald. I was something like seventeen when I first read it. It has this terrific power to remind me, in a very visceral way, what magic FEELS like. I read children's lit all the time because it doesn't seem to be bound to the same rules as "adult" literature. The books I drove my parents crazy over were "In The Night Kitchen" by Maurice Sendak and "Alexander and The Pirats." I didn't spell that wrong, they were pi-RATS, and Alexander was a tiny man who lived in the moat of a castle. Classic stuff. My parents constantly read to me and my sister, and had their own favorites: "Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" was my mom's (this lead to the family saying "sometimes life's like that, even in Australia" whenever someone complained) and "Where the Wild Things Are" was my dad's. I was really lucky to have parents that encouraged me to read, and pushed me towards classic authors like Jules Verne and J.R.R. Tolkein in 3rd grade. For me it was perfect timing, I was getting bored of Boxcar-esque serials and had flatly refused to EVER read Babysitter's Club or Sweet Valley High. I'm very excited for this class, if only because it seems to legitimize my passion for kid's books.