Up until I was in the sixth grade or so, I thought I wanted to be a librarian. Although I knew about the typical negative stereotypes  of librarians (old, white, spinster, donning cat-eye shaped glasses, hair tightly fashioned in a bun, etc.),  I was convinced that I wanted to become one. 

At the beginning of every summer during my childhood, my father brought the three of us to the public library in downtown College Park to get us enrolled in the summer library reading contest. Each of us received a sheet in which we had to write down the names of the books that we read throughout the summer. If you read a certain amount of books, you would receive prizes at the end of the summer. Although my brothers had to be cajoled into participating in these contests, I relished writing each and every title on my list. So when people asked me what I wanted to become as an adult, I thought the natural response was a librarian since reading was my absolute favorite thing to do. (Eating was a close second, ha, ha.) I wanted to be a writer too, but I didn’t know any writers so becoming a librarian seemed a more attainable choice.

Also, there was this one librarian at College Park Library who was so nice plus she didn’t look like the librarians I read about. She was tall, slender and black with long hair. She didn’t wear glasses, and she was reasonably fashionable. I figured if she could do it then I could do it. In fact, one summer just after I finished the fifth or sixth grade I volunteered to be her assistant at College Park Library. For a few hours each week, I helped her shelve books according to the Dewey Decimal System, read stories to little kids, haul books to various locations, organize the card catalogue system, etc. After that summer, I realized that the job of a librarian was a bit monotonous for me plus my new found discovery of boys didn’t help.

Since those days, I haven’t made an effort to have a “summer reading list” although reading is still my favorite pastime. A new study in the journal Psychological Science demonstrates that people’s brains actually process the actions in a book much like their brains process real life events. In other words, the same brain activity that occurs when one is in love is much like the brain activity that occurs when one is reading about being in love…it’s no wonder that romance novels are so popular with some people. (They are getting off on that stuff!) Anyway, this study just proves what I have experienced since I was a very young child. When I want to go somewhere, I just read a book.

In homage to the infamous “summer reading list,” I have decided to list some of my favorite books from my childhood. I wonder if some of these books are still popular.

1. Ludell and Willie by Brenda Scott Wilkinson. I think I must have read this book during my pre-teens. It is a tender romance story about two black teenagers in Waycross, Georgia in the 1950s. In this book, you can experience segregation and learn about big, thick juicy pickles that make you want to suck the juice out of them before chomping them. This book also made me want to marry a country boy. In fact, I often thought of this book when I dated this guy who is from Vidalia.

2. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret? by Judy Blume. I think Judy Blume books helped raise me. This is a must read for any young girl who has yet to experience her first period. Goodness, those days were so confusing, but books like this help out a lot…

3. The Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. I don’t remember what these books were about exactly. I just remember the heroine of these books was this little girl with a brown bob who was always getting in trouble.  It seemed like there was a ton of these books…

4. The Friends by Rosa Guy. This book is about a friendship between a black girl from the West Indies and a black girl from New York. It reminded me of my friendship with a girl who had just moved to Georgia from Jamaica.  In those days, my quest to find a best friend was as troublesome as my quest to find a mate is now. Maybe it will be resolved as it was then. All of a sudden, she just showed up, and she wasn’t like the best friend I had pictured in my mind. She was a couple of grades ahead of me and had an accent, but I felt I had known her forever…

5. Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly. This book is about a summer romance between a girl that is about to go to college and a high school star athlete who had once seemed unattainable. Apparently, Daly was in college when she wrote the story! If I ever visit Wisconsin, I must visit Fond du Lac where this story takes place.

6. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank. This book is a heartbreaking story of a young Jewish girl and her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was forced to hide out in an attic for about two years. This precocious young woman recorded her insights during this unbelievably horrific crime against humanity. Anne ultimately died in a concentration camp.

7. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene. Reading the above mentioned book gave me perspective on this book. This is  a story about a young girl’s crush on a German soldier, who escaped a POW camp. It is an unlikely story as the main character is Jewish. This girl ends up hiding the German soldier who ultimately slips away before their relationship is revealed.

So what are some of your favorite childhood books? Why? Do you have a “summer reading list” now? How is it going? Any suggestions for good reads?

Any thoughts?

P.S. I ran into that librarian in my early 20s. She was working at the public library in Buckhead. Surely, she must have retired by now…