Children's Book Day: My favorite childhood stories!

Today, April 2nd is Children's Book Day! This day was chosen because it's Hans Christian Andersen's birthday who happens to be the author of many wonderful children's books such as The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, and so many other fairy tales we all still cherish today. 

Casper is an innovative sleep startup company that launched just about a year ago that sells outrageously comfortable mattresses. In honor of Children's Book Day, they want me to share what books inspired me to become the reader that I am today. Was there a certain book I've read so many times I have it memorized? Casper thinks bedtime is the best time to curl up with a good book. Of course when you're a child bedtime stories are a must! So in honor of Children's Book Day and bedtime stories everywhere, here's my story.

One of my earliest memories of being introduced to reading is when my Mom and Dad would read me picture books. There are several that come to mind I remember reading often; The Poky Little Puppy, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goodnight Moon, The Berenstain Bears, The Emperor's New Clothes and many more. 

As a young child I loved looking at the pictures more so than listening to the words but in time the more my parents read to me I found myself speaking along with the words and understanding the story. Bedtime became something I looked forward to and my request for new books made my parents overjoyed seeing me enjoy reading as much as I have did. I remember a collectible book set called Little Golden Books. I loved getting new ones often, as my parents would buy me them as they came out. Collecting them was fun, and learning to read them was ever more fun. As I got older my little sister was born and my taste in books had matured. All of my worn and loved picture books were now passed down to my baby sister, Rachel. It was her turn now to see how much that Very Hungry Caterpillar could eat, what kinds of trouble the poky puppy would find, and to say Goodnight Moon. 

In my middle grade years I also loved to read and probably more so than when I was a child. I had gotten hooked on authors like R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. To this day I still have many of their books and have recently started reading books from the Fear Street series. A few of my favorites were The Hitchhiker, Bad Dreams, and Silent Night. I would read and reread many R.L Stine novels to the point they would be worn out. I loved a good mystery and even today YA mystery novels are among my favorites to read. I also remember reading more girly book series, like The Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High, and books by Judy Bloom. 

About this time in my life reading became an outlet. I was bullied horribly in school, day in day out because of a medical disorder I have called Tourette's Syndrome. When I read I could go into another world, or another person's life (story) and forgot my own for a while. Books really made a impact on my life in that way. A book never put you down, never called you a mean name, and never teased you. Without reading and all of these amazing books my life would have been a lot different.  

As you can see I have always had a passion for reading. Only now I blog about the books I read and enjoy sharing about new and upcoming authors. My love of reading has only grown as I've aged and my hopes are to one day read to my future children the books I so loved when I was just a child. 

Thank you all for reading this post. I hope you all enjoyed reading about what books I grew up with and how much they've impacted my life as a adult. 

What are some of YOUR childhood favorite books?