Nostalgia

I was a voracious reader as a kid. It was common for me to spend a Saturday reading and get through 4 or 5 Babysitters Club books. I would walk down to the library and come home with a healthy stack, but not before having to convince the ornery librarian that I was old enough to read whatever I had picked out. I remember always having to go the bathroom when I got there and never having the courage to ask for the key...


Here are some of the series I devoured in Elementary School:

• Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls

I could still pick this up today and probably love it as much as I did then. I always had a fascination with pioneer days and the "olden times". I don't think I discovered these until grade 4 or 5, but I'm pretty sure I read them all in a weekend.

• Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery

I remember it taking me a while to collect and read the entire series. My middle name is Marilla, which is a name most people have never heard of outside of these books. I used to watch the movies and try to make my hair poofy like Anne's when she was older, but I could never get it to look right.

• Bobbsey Twins - Laura Lee Hope

I don't remember much about the Bobbsey Twins, I think I read them when I was pretty young.

• Encyclopedia Brown - Donald J. Sobel

It was hard to get through the whole book without just skipping to the end. I read these when I was pretty little too, but I don't recall being a huge fan. This was before I was a picky reader.

• Boxcar Children - Gertrude Chandler Warner

Looooved these books. I loved the first one, all about how they lived in the boxcar. There was a secluded area behind my house near a swamp and I imagined them living there. These I also read in early elementary school.

• Eric Wilson Mysteries

These aren't really a series, but they are a bunch of myteries for kids that take place around Canada... Lunenburg, PEI... all over. The author includes a lot of Canadian history and geography, I couldn't get enough. But there weren't a lot when I was a kid, and I could never (and still can't) read a book twice.

• From Anna - Jean Little

I recall there being a series of three, "From Anna" being the first. I read these in grade 5 when my mother asked my teacher for some more challenging books. It's about a German girl who immigrates to Canada either during the first or second world war. It's probably still one of the best things I've ever read. There's a lot of history in it, but the characters are what you care most about. I still remember a lot of what happened in this book, which says a lot because I don't usually remember much once I put it down.

• Babysitters Club - Anne M. Martin

I'd read 3-4 a day in early elementary school. I wanted to be Claudia. I was shocked later on when I went into a used book store and saw hundreds and hundreds of these pink books.

• Sweet Valley High - Francine Pascal

The librarian was probably right, I might have been a little young for these but I read ' em anyway.

Stellarton Library

Yes, that's the whole thing