Where My Lore Started | Book Tag

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!

If you're a part of the bookish side of the internet, I feel like you've had to have seen the "where my lore started" trend that's going around. Essentially the books that shaped you as a reader, whether they're from your childhood, your teen years, or the first books you read when you started reading for fun. I love seeing these posts because I see so many books that I read as a kid, even some that I completely forgot about until I was reminded. Then I saw this amazing tag on YouTube, and I knew I had to participate.

This tag was created by Cari (from the YouTube channel cari can read) and you can watch her original video here. It's 12 questions, all about your reading as a kid and how that made you into the reader you are today. I'm so excited to do this tag, so I'm just going to jump right in!

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1. What's the first book you remember reading by yourself?

I started reading when I was pretty young, around 3 or 4, so honestly I can't remember that far back.

Thinking about kindergarten, I was a huge fan of the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne, I had so many of those books. My personal favorites were Vacation Under the Volcano, Earthquake in the Early Morning, and Twister on Tuesday. I was obsessed with the natural disaster ones in particular. I'm pretty sure I also owned all of the Merlin adventure books, like Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve (my personal favorite), Christmas in Camelot, and Carnival at Candlelight. 

Another big series for me around that time was the Geronimo Stilton series by Elisabetta Dami. Geronimo was a mouse who got dragged around on treasure hunts and adventures by his sister, and he would later write about them. The actual books were so much fun because there were different fonts, sometimes in spirals or dripping off of the pages. The illustrations were also amazing. I must have owned every single one of those books up to a certain point when I grew out of them.

Also, though this isn't technically the question, one of my earliest formative memories is of my dad reading The Hobbit to me out loud. He put on a rather theatrical voice and I just remember loving the cadence of how he read, and looking at the pictures of our edition.

2. What character did you most identify with in elementary school?

This might sound a little odd, but if you knew me as a child, it would make perfect sense. 

I fully embodied Despereaux from The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. He was a quiet, tiny mouse who loved to read. I was a quiet, tiny girl who loved to read. My friends had a habit of calling me a mouse as well, because of the way I tended to nibble at my food, and I had a habit of balling my fists and putting them to my mouth when I was nervous or uncomfortable, just like a mouse would. I also would say Cottontail from the Peter Rabbit books by Beatrix Potter. There isn't much about her, only that she was the youngest girl in the family (you had Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, then Peter). In first grade, my class put on a production of Peter Rabbit and I played Cottontail. Growing up in a small town, my classmates stayed the same from kindergarten to senior year of high school. Cottontail stuck with me all of those years.

3. What was your elementary school comfort book?

I had so many, so buckle up. You're in for a wild ride.

First up, anything by Cornelia Funke. I remember really liking Dragon Rider in particular, but these days I can only think of Inkheart. The Thief Lord was also a formative book. I also loved all of Shel Silverstein's books, like The Giving Tree, Runny Babbit, and Where the Sidewalk Ends. I do also feel obligated to mention a certain 7 book series, but that's all I'm going to say about it. It was a big part of my life and it doesn't need to be talked about any more.

I was a big series reader. If I found a story or a character I enjoyed and it was part of a series, I would then read everything in that series and put anything new on hold until I exhausted my library's stock. Some series that come to mind are the Sam: Dog Detective series by Mary Labatt, The Princess Tales series by Gail Carson Levine (of Ella Enchanted fame, though that book was more my older sister's speed), the Fairy Realm and the Deltora Quest series both by Emily Rodda. I would reread these series over and over, they were my bread and butter.

When I got a little older, say 4th and 5th grade, my go-to books (still series, of course) were Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel, and The Guardians of Ga'hoole by Kathryn Lasky. I loved following animals (though I was not a Warriors girly), mysteries, and fantastical creatures. There were many, many others, but either I can't remember the names or they are just completely erased from my brain, buried in the depths of my subconscious. 

4. Where or what was your safe space as a kid? 

Definitely my elementary school's library and my local library. Pretty much all libraries I had access to, really. 

I liked that they always had that same book smell, and you had to be quiet in them (my tiny undiagnosed brain was constantly overstimulated and appreciated the calm that libraries had). I would grab a stack of books, huddle on the ground or in a bean bag, and read for however long I was allowed to. Often times I would ask my mom if we could stay until closing time. By the time I was moving into YA books, I had pretty much read every children's and middle-grade book my local library had to offer. Even when I went to middle school and high school, I would help out at my elementary school (the librarian was a friend of the family) and would reshelve books and help with stock. 

I also have so many vivid memories of going to the "big" library one town over, where they had a massive saltwater fish tank with so many gorgeous fish. I would sit and stare at them for hours. I know I named the lionfish they had, but I can't remember what I named it.

5. How has your taste in books changed since childhood?

A lot of the books I read as a kid have followed me into my adult years. I still have my original copies of Inkheart, The Tale of Despereaux, Fablehaven, and the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan (I didn't mention this one earlier despite it probably being my most formative book series, because I didn't actually start reading them until I was in middle school). I feel like I still gravitate toward the same themes and genres, like fantasy and mythology. However, I definitely grew out of the mystery genre, I hardly read any mystery books these days. I do still love books about natural disasters, though I lean more toward nonfiction when it comes to those.

6. Did you feel inspired to read by your school and if yes, how did your upbringing encourage reading?

Oh my goodness, yes. The first librarian at my elementary school (there were two; Mrs. H and Mrs. E. I wish I could remember their full names, all I could come up with were initials) was a family friend, and my mom often helped out on library days. Since we lived so close to school and she wasn't working at the time, my mom was the unofficial parent volunteer of my class. When I was in 3rd grade Mrs. H moved to the local library and a new school librarian (Mrs. E) came in, and I quickly grew attached to her, too. At the local library, Mrs. H always encouraged my reading. There would be a sort of reading contest every summer, and I always tried to read the most amount of books. There were a lot of other really cool things that the library did (I distinctly remember a bookmark-drawing contest. The best drawings were printed as real bookmarks that the library would hand out. I won 3rd place, I was very proud). 

Who else remembers the Scholastic book fairs? Oh man, that was the single greatest week every year in elementary school. When I was in the later grades, my mom actually had to put a cap on my budget because I just wanted to buy every book available.

I grew up in a family of readers. As I mentioned earlier, my dad would read The Hobbit to me as a child. My older sister would do the same thing with Harry Potter. If I was going on a vacation, or had summer camp, or anything of the sort, the most important things to pack were always books. My sister and I would always spend our entire allowance at Borders (remember Borders? That was my original holy land) and would come home from the library with a stack of books every time. I am so blessed and thankful that I was able to grow up surrounded by books.

7. What book have you wanted to return to lately?

I've been wanting to reread Inkheart lately. I come back around to it every few years or so. Last year I reread all of Fablehaven in order to read the next series, Dragonwatch (I'm currently on book three). And of course, with the latest book having just been released, I'm itching to reread The Hunger Games. Talk about a series that still holds up in my adult eyes!

8. Your favorite or formative ya series?

Like most teens in the early 2010s, I loved book series like The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner. I know I read the Twilight books at least once, though I'm pretty sure that was it. It's middle grade and not YA, but all of the Rick Riordan series were read in 8th grade through high school (I remember The Lost Hero being released when I was a freshman, and I begged my mother to go buy a copy while I was at school so I could read it as soon as I got home). I read The Fault in Our Stars when I was a sophomore and vividly remember crying into my at-the-time boyfriend's shoulder (his mother was the one who gave me the book). A Great and Terrible Beauty began my longtime love for Libba Bray.

9. A book you had to read in school but you loved?

I was pretty biased against school-selected reads, but I do remember a few that I enjoyed.

In elementary school, I really liked Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell and Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. Middle school had Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (which I just reread this month), and Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. 

In high school I remember enjoying Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1984 by George Orwell, and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. We also read a lot of Shakespeare in high school, but unfortunately I didn't like most of the plays picked by my teachers. I remember actually getting angry with The Taming of the Shrew. 

10. Your weirdest favorite book?

I feel like the weirdest books I liked as a kid were the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books. Those books might as well have been made from gold, the way my class coveted them. They were, without a doubt, the most checked out books from the library. When I think about why I like horror novels now, these are what come to mind. I may not have been able to look at the illustrations, but the stories are forever seared into my brain now. 

I also read a lot of children's/middle-grade nonfiction on natural disasters, as well as space. I was always a nerd and proud of it. I remember there were Magic Tree House-adjacent books narrated by Jack and Annie, but about things like tornadoes and tsunamis. I think I reread those more than I reread the actual Magic Tree House books.

11. If your 13 year old self could live in a fictional world which would it be? Is it different from the world you'd choose now?

Back then, the answer would absolutely have been Camp Half-Blood, no doubt about it. By the time I was 13, the Percy Jackson books were my entire personality. And I will admit, a part of me still wants to go there. But I also think I would like to be in the world of Temeraire. It might be in the 1800s, but at least there would be dragons. I feel like I could make it as an aviator. 

12. Is there a newly released book you wish you had when you were younger?

Oh, man. I feel like there are a lot of books nowadays that little Ally would have adored. To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose would have absolutely been a favorite of mine. As far as inclusivity and such, I feel like the Heartstopper books would have done me so much good. I can't imagine a world where I figured out I was bi in high school, but I do know these books would have helped me through that time. Anything by Alice Oseman, really, would have done teenage me a world of good.

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Okay, that's all for this tag! I had so much fun thinking back to my childhood and what books I loved back then. I'd love to know, what books did you love as a kid? Let me know in the comments, or DM me on Instagram (link in sidebar under the heading "More Media"). 

Be sure to check out Cari on YouTube, I've been watching her videos for years and I love her content!

Until next time, friends!