Words of Inspiration and Motivation

Personal Childhood Web

Hi, Dr. Horton and peers! I have created a secondary page on my blog to host my Personal Childhood Web. You can locate it in the left sidebar or here. Thanks!

"There are many little ways to enlarge your world. Love of books is the best of all." -Jacqueline Kennedy

This is a recent photo of my stepdaughter that I took. It was early evening and I spotted her lugging an armful of books outside to read on her trampoline. It reminded me of myself as a child, as I have always loved reading, and reading outside in particular. It's amazing how quickly you can fall into another world and how deeply you can come to care about the characters. There are some books that you can read twenty times and still get the same thrill as if it were your first time hearing the story. 

My favorite book as a child was "The Great Gilly Hopkins," by Katherine Paterson. I grew up in foster care and Gilly, the title character of the book, was also a foster child. She spends most of the book as a sassy young girl who just wants to be reunited with her biological mother. As she grows to love her unconventional foster family, she realizes they are the family she needed all along. However, by this point, Gilly has reached out to her mother, claiming abuse, so that they can be reunited. Instead, her biological grandmother brings Gilly to live with her, and is forced to bribe Gilly's mom to even visit her daughter. Gilly eventually adapts to life with her grandmother and seems content enough, though it's quite heartbreaking that she lost the foster family she truly loved in the process. Although it's a children's novel, it's still a story I enjoy reading as an adult.