Children's Stories III

When I was very, very young I read mostly animal stories by such wonderful authors as: Thomas Hinkle, who wrote mostly horse stories, S.P Meek, who wrote many dog and horse stories, and, of course, Walter Farley who wrote, “The Black Stallion”, “Son of the Black Stallion,”  “Island Stallion,” and many, many more. 

Along with the rest of the world I read the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mystery series.  But my very favorite was Howard Pease, and especially, “Thunderbolt House,” about three children in the San Francisco earthquake.  That was my favorite and I read all of his other books; including, “Ship without a Crew”, “Shipwreck,” and “Secret Cargo”.  He was my favorite childhood writer.   

I’m sure I’m not remembering all of the writers that I read but Frank Yerby soon became a favorite along with Thomas Costain.  Then I found a super book, “The Good Earth,” by Pearl Buck.  That’s about the time that I switched from children’s books to adult fiction. 

Soon I was reading “Girl of the Lumberlost,” “Little Women,” “Wuthering Heights,” “Jane Eyre,” and that genre.  Not enough adventure there for me so I moved on to Dickens, Steinbeck, and many of the other classics and then I got into Russian writers,

In the eighth grade I was fortunate enough to be selected for a class sponsored by Stanford University for speed reading and comprehension.  We were also required to read one book a week and make an oral report.  It was a very small class, probably ten of us.  We read everything from Popular Mechanics to Harper’s and Atlantic Monthly for speed and comprehension.  It was a wonderful experience for me and while I did increase my speed I never gave up savoring wonderful writing. Similar classes in all areas should be offered to students in grammar school. Art, music, mechanics, physics, whatever interests the student.  How wonderful to be allow to read and read and read.