I hope this evening finds you all well. Things here on the flatland are exceptionally wet... but hey, at least for the moment it's not snow, so I'm content. (The wet white stuff is supposed to make another appearance tonight and possibly tomorrow, to the tune of 15-ish centimeters. Ugh)
I want to tell you about Katie Welkie. Katie is The Girl With The Silver Eyes. I first encountered Katie when I was in fourth or fifth grade. She came into my life through one of those Scholastic book flyers that get sent home from time to time when you're in elementary school. I chose her out of the flyer because I thought the girl on the cover actually looked a bit like me (big glasses, poker-straight dishwater brown hair, totally out of style clothes... nothing like the girl on the newest cover I found on Amazon).
And from the first time I read the story, I was hooked. A young girl who had been raised by her grandmother has to move in with her mother when said grandmother dies. A new place to live, a new school to try to fit into, and all while trying to come to terms with and hide her very special talent... she can move things with her mind! She could turn pages in her books with out using her hand (and she read almost as much as I did at the time), she could push her glasses up her nose just by thinking about it (something I tried and tried to do), and she could avoid getting hit by stray balls on the playground by making them veer past her.
She knows she's different, and she knows that she needs to find out why. She embarks on an adventure through her mother's past, to find out if there are others like her.
I loved her determination, the sense of us-versus-them that she shares with her friend Jackson, and her out-right nerdiness. She made my life and my personality okay.
This book was magic for me. It made who I was, as a nerd and a bookworm, normal. I mean come on, a story about a girl who hides within the confines of a book to escape a world that doesn't seem to understand her? That was my life...
I really wish I still had a copy of this.
What was your favourite book when you were ten years old? Do you still have it? When was the last time you read it?
Ooo, I would have LOVED this book as a 10-year-old! Actually we would have been best buds, sleep overs where we sat and read, or just played quietly.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book at that age was "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeline Engle. I loved the different characters and the theme of love conquering all.
Hello, Mrs. Gamgee! I'm loving your blog!! It's so cute and clever!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite books when I was ten were Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (actually the entire Anne series) and also Indian Captive by Lois Lenski. I still re-read them every few years, of course! I love all my childhood favorites and love re-reading them. :)
Have a great weekend and happy A to Z!!
I loved Beverly Clearly - Beezus and Ramona, Henry and the Mouse and the Motorcycle books. Yes, I still have them and had read them to my daughters. They are on their bookshelves but I think they enjoy Hunger Games seres better.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Germany and actually hated to read. There was a book when I was seven that I sort of liked, about a girl who drew her dreams on the wall beside her bed. What I liked the most was that her mom didn't get mad. Other than that, I don't remember much except that I liked characters that had needs to be met. I was never much into heroes, more a fighter for the underdogs, i guess.
ReplyDeleteTis story sounds familliar but I can't seem to really remember it?! My favourite books at ten years old were any books really! I loved to read and still do!
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