The 52 Book Club: 2025 Challenge discussion

WEEKLY CHECK-IN
May 7, 2023 -- Week 19

What's the very first book you ever remember reading?

I think mine was The Monster at the End of this Book. For actual novels, maybe Little House on the Prairie or The Secret of the Old Clock

. It was a school text, that I only remember because my sister-in-law, who likes to tease me about all the reading I do, is often heard saying "That dxxx Dick and Jane".

Ooooh great question. I was given Raggedy Ann Stories for Christmas when I was 5. I loved it.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. I was in 3rd grade and something about it interested me enough to get my mom to buy it for me at our elementary school's Book Fair. She read the first two chapters with me and told me if I wanted to find out what happened I'd have to read the rest myself. I did and loved it. I read several other books afterward but never by choice. All required reading for reading logs.

The first book I officially read start to finished was Twilight by Stephenie Meyer when I was in 6th grade.

New Moon had just been released in theaters and I had recently gotten into the Twilight movies. My mom realized the films were based on books and as a joke bought me the first book for Christmas. She started laughing when she saw my face as I opened that present, and said she didn't know why she bought it. She said I probably wouldn't read the book until I was 21. I wanted to prove her wrong and finished the book before Christmas break ended. I haven't stopped reading sense.

I, too, love this question. Family legend says I read Corduroy to my baby siblings when I was 3 and a half... Only half remember that myself. The first one I actually remember was The Story of Babar. And I thought I was so grown when, at 7, I got through Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, a real adult's book... :)

I doubt if they were the first books I read by myself, but I loved the Black Stallion books by Walter Farley when I was a kid.

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. I was 3 years old and my neighbor was babysitting me while my mom was at work. She would give me a blanket and pillow and a stack of books and let me build a fort under her pool table and read all day. She heard me reading out loud to myself and told my mom that I could read. My mom told her that I just had the story memorized, but she insisted, so my mom went to the library and got some books that she knew I had never read before, and I could read them. I'm still not sure how I learned to read, other than just being read to constantly, but my youngest daughter also taught herself to read at age 3.

A Nancy Drew mystery that my mom read with me! Then I was off to Boxcar children

I loved reading everyone's answers! I absolutely hated to read all the way into my adult years. I wasn't good at it and would have preferred not to try, but I specifically remember my grandma giving me an old copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that I stayed determined to finish during summer break when I was about 9 yo.

I have no idea what the first book I read was—that was a long time ago! Like Gail W., I do remember the Dick and Jane books although I know I was reading independently before that.

I also learned how to read with Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot and Puff. Not sure what my first books, but I remember loving Curious George, Madeline, Horton Hatches An Egg and Little Women. My Classics book Club read little Women this year, which was great reading as an adult so many years later. Horton Hatches An Egg is still a lifetime favorite and I read it to my grandkids frequently. It was even a cartoon.

Oh...I totally remember the Dick and Jane Books. I have such a sentimental connection to those terrible books. But the first booksGreen Eggs and Ham I remember reading is The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.

The first one I remember was a collection of Disney stories- a big hardcover book with a red cover. One of the first stories in it was Hiawatha. Dumbo was really long (to my child's mind) and I was so proud finish that one.

I also have memories of reading The Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two fish, red fish, Blue Fish. Mom says I read others at age 3 but I don't remember those.

Series called Cin Ali.

The very first book I read on my own was when I was in 4th grade and my aunt who was a elementary school teacher gave me:

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

My aunt had giving me the whole collection and I read it over and over!! I actually still have this!!

I loved The Wizard of Oz and read it a million times in my childhood.

It was a book called Emily the Octopus. I read it to my class for show and tell in kindergarten. First book I every read by myself.

Reading all by myself? My first reader at school. It's hard to find the exact edition, but it was the Canadian version of the British Janet and John readers, but of course there was more than one edition of these. I was so happy when we got to bring it home after we finished it so I could read it for my parents.

However, by then I had probably read books we had at home on our own, since I went from not reading at all when I started grade 1 to to reading well ahead of my level by the end of the year, like so many avid readers (but not all :) )!

It must have been one of the American Girls books back when I was in elementary school. I remember reading through Samantha's books and Felicity's books.