My Favorite Books in Middle School
A Wrinkle in Time Series
The Set Up
I
can remember when my mom told me I was going to take part in a book club. At
first I was incredibly excited: I got to read more books. However, when my mom
explained that in the book club we would be discussing the books, I was
decidedly less excited. During this time period in my life, I only wanted to
read books. Discussion wasted valuable time that could have been spent reading
more books. Plus, I was very stubborn. I saw discussion questions in a very
limited view. For each question, there was a right answer. All you needed to do
was figure out the right answer. But other people in the book club didn’t come
to the same answer I did for the same questions. So I saw the discussion around
questions with differing opinions also as a waste of time. I was right, whereas
the other person was wrong and stubborn. Can we just move on?
The Cover
These
were my thoughts before I had even gone to one meeting. I was not thrilled. My
enthusiasm didn’t even increase as my mom gave me the first book. It was weird
looking. At the time, I knew the “don’t just a book by its cover” saying, but I
thought the book was weird looking enough to trump that saying. A half man half
horse monster with tiny wings attached to his shoulders with short white hair
took up most of the cover. The word centaur hadn’t even been in my vocabulary,
but it was now and I was none too happy about it. I was disturbed. The
beginning of the book didn’t help either. It’s raining and the main character
drinks milk and meets the neighbor. The neighbor hadn’t even left yet, when I
went to my mom to attempt to wiggle my way out of reading it.
The Fall
Unsuccessful,
I decided to see what I was in for. I skipped to the last twenty or thirty
pages or so and started reading. At first I was only confused, but as I started
untangling what was happening I was fully engrossed in the story. I had almost
finished the book, without reading the beginning, middle, or beginning or
middle of the end, when my mom caught me. I happily restarted the book eager to
find out how the characters ended up with the ‘it’. To this day, the wrinkle in
time series is one of my favorite book series. I can’t look at a book with
disgust without second-guessing myself and wondering if it’s another Wrinkle in Time. It’s odd what flashes
of memory our brains latch onto. I still can’t pick up the book without getting
the taste of the snicker doodles we ate at the book club and vice versa. If I’m
eating snicker doodles, I suddenly have a strong desire to be lost in Madeline
L’Engle’s imaginative world.
Mara Daughter of the Nile
The Intrigue
As
I mentioned in my Quest for the Picture post, I love ancient Egypt. I read this
book during the year in fifth grade I spent falling in love with ancient Egypt.
Originally, the cover of it caught my eye, as I was helping my mom unpack the
big box of books for the school year. How could it not? A young woman with
obsidian hair dressed in plain smart white with a light outer covering
reminding me of a purple sunset must be Mara. She’s on a terrace covered in
hieroglyphs overlooking the Nile at dusk with some storm clouds overhead. Clutching
her covering close, she doesn’t look afraid, a bit wary, but completely ready
for whatever comes.
The Payoff
But
first I had to read The Golden Goblet.
Despite my gut reaction to immediately discount it as boring, I remembered that
I had thought that about A Wrinkle in
Time and pushed those feelings to the side. I ended up loving the book so
much I thought no book could outshine it for the rest of the year, especially one
about ancient Egypt. Oh boy was I wrong. Mara
Daughter of the Nile has everything. Adventure? Check. Mystery? Check.
Friendship? Check. A main character that loves books, a prince, a guy funnier
and smarter than the prince, romance, but no stupid love triangles? Check. There
was no more perfect of a book for me that year.
City of Ember Series
The Purchase
I
might be mistaken, but I think the City of Ember series also crossed my path
because of the book club, but again I might be mistaken. What I am certain
about is the day my mom bought the second book in the series for me, The People of Sparks. On a bright and
hot, but not humid summer day, my mom decided to treat me with some books.
Taking the white minivan to Boarders, I be-lined for the children’s book
section with my mom in tow. First we found the 3rd book in the
Wrinkle in time series, and then next was the City of Ember series. Since I
couldn’t remember the author’s name or what the second book in the series was
called we looked it up on the desktop computer they had in the back.
The Summer
“Jeanne
DuPrau,” my mom said. “Madeline L’Engle, Jeanne DuPrau. Why do all the others
you read have such funny names?”
“I
don’t know.” I said as I scoured the row for the book. The cover was gorgeous.
At this point, I had already fallen in love with the color blue and the sparkle
of stars in the dark blue sky with a green leaved ‘S’ just pique my interest
even more. On the way home, I started reading the book. My dad and younger
sister and brother had been working on setting up the blowup kid pool on the
deck. They hurried me out onto the deck to show me their progress; they were
done. But I had no desire to get in. I merely sat down at the side of the kid
pool and continued reading my book. Later in the year my dad read the third
book to me and we named houses in our neighborhood after those in the book.
Driving past those houses, even now, reminds me of the summer and nights spent
reading about how the end of the world was approaching and what humans were
doing to prepare.
The Sherwood Ring
The Time
The
reason I wrote, “There was no more perfect of a book for me that year,” about Mara Daughter of the Nile is that
another book exists that was also made for me. Before I had an obsession with
ancient Egypt, I loved the Revolutionary War. I used to say that if you could
have a favorite war*, mine would be the Revolutionary War. Although this isn’t the oddest feature about
my younger self, I still feel somewhat obliged to explain it. On PBS, the only tv channel besides the local
news that the TV’s antenna could catch, there was a show called Liberty’s Kids.
It followed the adventures of James, Sarah, and Henri as they worked for
Benjamin Franklin’s newspaper reporting on all the happenings on during the
Revolutionary War. Therefore, when I learned that a significant portion of this
book takes place during the Revolutionary War, I couldn’t wait to start reading
it.
The Ride
However,
it took a bit to learn that. The title was lackluster, especially once I
remembered that The Lord of the Rings
was the famous book series and not The
Sherwood Ring. As I read the book, it picked up steam slowly like a
rollercoaster, there was a slow buildup, up, up, up and then before you knew it
you were on a crazy ride. Unexpected loop-da-loops and sudden changes of pace
were common, but I was never bored while reading it. Undeniably I was impatient
for the next revelation in the hunt for Sherwood, but definitely never bored.
The Words
I
find it interesting that despite how much emotional value to this book, I find
myself unable to say much about it. I’ll say this. Imagine one of those perfect
pictures, that of a field of flowers, impossible snow covered mountain peaks,
or a sunset over a beach with a painted sky. Float a quote about my feelings
being too deep for words something to the effect of “My thoughts are starts I
cannot fathom into constellations”. ** Make it the perfect thing to share on
social media. That is how I feel about this book, though I will fully admit it
has no genius literary value. It will never be a classic. Elizabeth Marie Pope
is not an undiscovered Shakespeare that I will bring to light with this post,
but she is an author who wrote a story that I carry with me everywhere I go and
that I will love for all its too perfect romance and cheesy happy ending until
forever.
Notes:
*I wasn’t sure it was conscionable to have one
** John Green The
Fault in Our Stars
Sources:
Image Credit: "Library in middle school, Sapporo" by danobrienmuzyka
City of Ember Series. 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2008. Editions.
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