Mrs. H's Favorites
Here are a handful of my favorite books in the entire world. I firmly believe that if I were stranded on a deserted island, I would most likely be okay as long as I had these books with me.
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filed with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."
And so begins J.R.R. Tolkien's amazing story, The Hobbit. Full of adventure, heroism, and magic, The Hobbit tells the story of Bilbo Baggins, who reluctantly joins a band of dwarves on their journey to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent (a fierce dragon) and reclaim their mountain home.
The Hobbit is a very special book to me - I remember my mother reading it to me when I was a little girl and it's the very first book I remember reading completely on my own. I had a large, hardback copy with beautiful pictures in it and every time I opened it, I felt like magic was about to happen. I still feel like that today.
In Holes, Stanley Yelnats is falsely convicted of stealing and sent to Camp Green Lake, a dry, dusty juvenile detention center in the middle of the desert, where the inmates are forced to dig a large hole every day. As Stanley gets to know the other boys and the grueling routine, he discovers a mystery behind this strange punishment that's related to a treasure and the supposed curse on Stanley's family dating back to his "dirty-rotten-pig-stealing" great-grandfather. The keys to the mystery lie within a fellow inmate named Zero, a warden with rattlesnake venom nail polish and a boat that's named after an onion-eating mule that sits in the middle of a dry lake bed.
The absolute best thing about Holes is the way the author, Louis Sachar, jumps seamlessly back and forth between story lines, weaving together all the lines from the past and the present. There are no less than 5 different story lines happening simultaneously, and when all of these different story lines finally click into place, it is nothing short of magical. One person on the internet described it as "hearing the perfect orchestral chord". They're right - this one hits different.
For hundreds of years, mystical creatures gathered into a hidden refuge called Fablehaven to prevent their extinction. Inside the gated woods, ancient laws keep relative order among greedy trolls, mischievous satyrs, plotting witches, spiteful imps and jealous fairies. The sanctuary is still there today as one of the last strongholds of true magic. Enchanting? Absolutely. Exciting? You bet. Safe? Eh, not so much - especially when those ancient laws and rules get broken, and powerful forces of evil are unleashed.
Kendra and her brother, Seth, who are visiting their grandparents, are amazed to discover their grandfather is the caretaker of this magical world. Unfortunately, those powerful forces are at work and Kendra and Seth must find the courage to save their family, Fablehaven and perhaps even the world.
I read all five Fablehaven books (it's a series), by Brandon Mull, to my children before bed and it was really hard for all of us to put the books down. While I occasionally wanted to yell at Seth for never doing what he was supposed to do ('cause I'm a mom), the books were action-packed from beginning to end.
Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first her brothers and sister don't believe her when she describes her visit to the land of Narnia, a magical land beyond the wardrobe door and a secret place frozen in eternal winter. But soon Edmund, Peter and Susan discover it for themselves. In Narnia, they find a country caught under the evil enchantment of the White Witch. When they meet the lion Aslan, they realize they've been called to Narnia for a reason and bravely join the battle for Narnia, a country waiting to be set free.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, pretty much ruined me for other books. I read this when I was a child, and I can't tell you how desperately I wanted to find a secret entrance into a snowy world and make friends with a faun. If I close my eyes, I imagine I can feel the trees and snow on my face. Unfortunately, I haven't found the entrance yet, but I'm still looking...
Do I even need to describe the Harry Potter series? Is there anyone out there who isn't familiar with it? Suffice it to say, I became devoted to Harry Potter with the very first sentence of the very first book and I'm still devoted. In fact, when the 7th book was released, I allowed my 7-year-old and 11-year-old to dress up and stay up all night, and we went to the book store for the release party and stood in line to buy the book at midnight. Let me say that again: I stood in line. To buy a book. In the middle of the night. Then I stayed up the rest of the night and read the book until I finished it the next day. My only regret is that there were only 7 books; I really should have savored that last one and not read it so quickly.
For those of you who only know Harry through the movies, I cannot tell you how much you're missing by not reading the books. There are so many details and storylines that just can't be covered in a 2-hour movie. If you liked the movies, I beg of you - read the books. Start with the first, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone; this is the one where we meet Harry and his friends, and are introduced to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You will never be the same.
