The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#103) -- Childhood Books

What books do you remember most fondly from your childhood?
 

Number 1 in this list is The Adventures of Monkey, an ancient Chinese text with the version I grew up on translated by Aurthur Waley. The book was given to my late Uncle David by Virginia Lee Parrish with an inscription that reads: To David With Best of Birthday Wishes.

Somehow the book had passed to my Meme (that's South Georgia for Grandma where I grew up) by the time I was a reader, and just about every time I spent the night at her house, I would read it before bed. If I didn't finish all 143 pages that night, I'd either take it home to finish (again) or stay another night and finish it then or get up early the next morning to finish it.

The story has stuck with me to this day, and thankfully, I've even had the opportunity to draw from its wells for a comic book project that I started for an indie company a few years ago (that might have some new breaths in its lungs; more on that as it develops).

Others that I have cherished came from my early reading days: my Childcraft Encyclopedias (particularly the volume on folklore), Never Talk to Strangers by Irma Joyce, and The Sailor Dog by Margaret Wise Brown.