Posted: September 3, 2024
Nowadays, I’m a reader, a writer, an editor, and a bookbinder. Getting to this point is a result of my family, relationships, and schooling, but even more so, who I am stems from the books I read as a child. Here is a list of five different books series I read in my elementary school years that laid the foundation for not only my taste in stories, but my view of the world.
I’ve talked about this book series a lot in the past, but it’s because it’s a huge part of my life. My mom first began reading this series to my brother and me when I was in second grade, and it was from there that my love of reading really took off. I loved the time I could spend with my mom every night, reading a new chapter of our latest book.
I’ve read and reread this series so many times that I’ve lost count, and even though now I don’t still reread the books, I know how each of them go almost by heart.
This series was less of a favourite of mine than Percy Jackson. I’ve read the first book three times now, but all the other books I’ve only read once through so far. While I’m not a fan of the author as a person, I can admit that her writing style is great for children, and she uses writing tricks and skills in these books that can be admired.
There are plot holes and mistakes in her works, too, which is a given for many authors—even professionals—which just goes to show you how the right story reaching the right audience can become a sensation. That’s the kind of popularity I strive for.
This series is what got me seriously into writing back in elementary school. I’d always loved making my own stories, way back to first grade when I was learning to write. In third grade, I was writing longer stories, but sixth grade (when I first picked up Eragon) was when I started writing novels.
I never finished these novels, of course. Not until eleventh grade, when I was motivated by a months-long project in my Creative Writing class. Still, my goal (after learning that Christopher Paolini published Eragon when he was nineteen years old) was to write and publish my first novel before I was twenty. And I did it! Not my best story, I admit, but it’s always like that for writers as they improve their craft and look back on past work. I’ve had mixed reviews—some who’ve loved it, and some who like to nitpick. All the same, I’m proud of that accomplishment and I continue to write novels—all thanks to the motivation after reading this series!
I read this series much younger than the others (around grades one and two). It’s a series of fifteen children’s books (plus an additional collection of stories) with owls as the main characters. It’s both Coming of Age and a fun Good vs Evil adventure. Some of my earlier stories were actually based on this series.
Though I started but didn’t finish reading this series when I was younger, it played a big part in what I do in the present day. The dragons in the series are real but they are also made of clay, which is what really inspired me to learn creative crafts. I I’d worked with beading and drawing and other things before, but working with clay and making things in a 3D space by molding and shaping was entirely different. This experience, I think, is what makes me love bookbinding so much. Working with different mediums to create something functional but also a piece of art is a whole new experience.
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Tigerpetal Press is a small book press dedicated to publishing local authors and poets.