There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.

–Marcel Proust

Believe it or not, I was a nonfiction reader most of my life. I enjoyed fiction but when I went to the library, I headed straight for nonfiction and always for the weirdest things I could find. I loved The Guiness Book of World Records and anything about Bigfoot or ghosts-still do!

In fifth grade, my teacher, Ms. Smelas, started a reading club with us. She separated us into two groups:boys and girls. Well, that didn’t sit well with me so I was the only student who refused to participate…at first. When I was finally persuaded, we read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I loved it. I also desperately wanted a garden space of my own and spent lots of time planning the layout of my own secret garden which appealed to the nonfiction part of me. What I’m trying to say is that a book has the ability to reach you somewhere deep inside that you aren’t even aware exists. It can transport your soul. The Secret Garden did that for me and I am forever grateful for Ms. Smelas and her sexist reading club.

Buzzfeed has a list of 67 Children’s Books That Actually Changed Your Life While I haven’t read all of the books on the list, I know quite a few of them and they are really great. A “Back to Childhood” Summer reading list may be in order. Will anyone look at me weird on the beach if I’m reading Beverly Cleary or The Babysitter’s Club? Would I even care? Nope.

What was the children’s book(s) that changed your life?