When Did You First Fall in Love, with Books?

I feel a little silly sharing this video and writing this post after all the great, deeply researched, and courageously shared posts by my fellow Mayhemers lately, but this has been on my mind, and the video is fun! So I'm writing it anyway.

First things first, I love this parody, because this guy, whoever he is, is so fearless in his love of Harry Potter, and is not the least bit uncomfortable rocking his nerd card - hard. That's inspiring to me, because when I was young, and especially in middle school and as a teen, I was often ashamed of my passion for things like books, dungeons and dragons, and imagination in general. It just wasn't considered cool to be into those things, and I often got called nerd - or worse.

This guys has no such fear, and I really love it, because now that I'm old, I feel the same way. Books are cool. Imagination is cool. Expressing yourself is cool. I'm so glad that culture has changed enough (many thanks to Jo Rowling for being a huge part of that) that my kids are very popular, and yet also very bookish.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about falling in love with books, and poll our readers to hear their stories too. Before I get to mine, I just want to talk about the part of this video that really inspired this post. The nerdy singer guy is cool, but it was something else that made me write this post.

The wand battles are very cool, and look like so much fun, but there is this scene at the end, after 3:30, where the little kids leave some books on the porch of an even littler kid, and it's like he's discovering this amazing new world of fantasy and adventure, and you just know his life is going to change forever - for the better. I'm not ashamed to admit watching that kid pick up that book and fall into it's pages makes me cry, just a little bit, every single time.

I think Jo Rowling gave the world a beautiful gift when she gave Harry Potter to our children, but it became even greater than the sum of its parts when our children gave it to us. I have a very cool, and slightly embarrassing story about how I came to love Harry Potter, but it's not for this post.

Today I want to share with you about how I first fell in love with books. I was the middle of three children, with two sisters. My dad was the stage manager for the Seattle Opera, so he was rarely home, but when he was, he often shared his love of books. He and my mom had this huge California king-sized bed, and it was so big our whole family could fit on it. My sisters and I would snuggle between mom and dad, and dad would read to us - from The Lord of the Rings. I remember like it was yesterday the first time I met Frodo and attended Bilbo's birthday party, and to tell you the truth, my heart has never really left Hobbiton. Like George R.R. Martin, I'd forsake heaven, as long as I could end up in Middle Earth.

The first book I read by myself (that I can recall after picture books and early readers) was the Hobbit, a natural progression after falling so in love with Tolkien's work. I was absolutely engrossed. I got the read along illustrated books, the Rankin-Bass production on betamax, everything I could get my hands on that would allow me to continue the dream. Technically, I was a bit below middle grade reading level at the time, probably about 7 or 8, but the point is, once I fell in love with books, I never turned back. Making that connection between a book and a young person is what it's all about. It's why we write for children, I believe.

When did you first fall in love with books?

Love Is in the Air—Or Is It? Should There Be Romance in Middle Grade?

As Valentine’s Day approaches, our minds turn to romance, and mine is no exception. Okay, most people aren’t contemplating the role of romance in middle grade, but we all know middle-grade writers are just a little odd :) Recently I was remembering the Children’s Lit class I took my last semester in college. The professor, while very fond of Charlotte’s Web, hated how romantically-minded little Fern became by the book’s end. In the last chapters, it’s clear that Fern has lost interest in Wilbur, her once-beloved pet pig. When Wilbur wins first prize at the County Fair, her mind is instead on the new objection of her affection, one hunky Henry Fussy. She even runs off to ride the Ferris wheel with Henry instead of staying to see Wilbur presented with his special award, completely missing Wilbur’s long-awaited “Hour of Triumph.” Weeks after the fair, riding the Ferris wheel with Henry is still on Fern’s mind: “The most fun there is,” she tells brother Avery, “is when the Ferris wheel stops and Henry and I are in the top car and Henry makes the car swing and we can see everything for miles and miles and miles . . . . I think about it all the time.” Lovesick much, little Fern? Many of you may remember, little Fern is all of eight years old.

My prof, who had daughters near that age, found it completely unrealistic that an eight-year-old girl would choose a boy over the pet pig she had saved from death and lovingly raised. His girls still thought boys had cooties—they’d be more interested in an adorable animal any day. He further commented that he would never let his eight-year-old daughter ride a Ferris wheel with a boy and would wallop any Henry Fussy who came near her.

All of which brings up a good point—what role should romance play in middle grade? Are middle graders simply too young to have (or to should have) any real interest in matters of the heart?

I personally think romance has a lot to offer any story, even a middle-grade one: tension, conflict, emotional investment, the possibility of an emotionally satisfying ending for your reader (or a really bittersweet one). Come on, you know part of the reason you eagerly devoured every new Harry Potter book was to see if Ron and Hermione finally got their stuff together and confessed their feelings for one another. And even as an eight-year-old, I got an immense amount of satisfaction when Laura Ingalls won the heart of Almanzo Wilder over that awful Nellie Oleson.

However, I don’t think romance should be the main focus of a middle-grade novel. Or, if a love story is at the core, then there needs to be plenty of other enticements (humor, adventure, colorful secondary characters, a fantastic setting, etc.) to hold a young audience’s interest. (Many animated movies based on classic love stories/fairy tales go this route.)

Many middle graders simply don’t have an interest in romance yet—and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Middle graders will have their teen years to go hormonal, and the rest of their lives to ponder and experience the trials and tribulations and mysteries and wonders of love. I like to think of middle grade as a time when kids should just enjoy being kids.


And I certainly think any romance in middle-grade novels should be suitable to the age of the characters. I always wondered at books that portrayed the very young falling head over heels.



Charlotte's Web may have put Noodle to sleep, but I'm a fan!



I do love Charlotte’s Web, but I must confess—I, too, was a little heartbroken when Fern abandoned Wilbur for Henry Fussy. Wilbur was “Some Pig”—surely he deserved a little better.

-Dawn Lairamore