TBT: My Bookworm Story

graphic by myeverydaylifeblog.com

Before 6th grade, I wasn't really much of a reader.  Sure, I've read Little House in the Big Woods or those various books for book reports, but to be honest, I never really did much reading at all.  It was all about watching TV or watching the movies that were based on book (yes I used to be one of those people and I deeply regret it).  Then in 6th grade, my world was turned upside down.

In 6th grade, there was this competition between all the other 6th grade classes called "Battle of the Books". I thought it was really cool!  You know, I hadn't read too many books, but the list of books seemed really interesting.  It was all Middle Grade.  But of course, I was in Middle Grade after all.  The more books you read from the list, the more prizes you get.  And at the end of the year, there is a competition between the boys and the girls where the librarian asked trivia questions about a certain book, and our goal was to answer which book it was.  We had all year to read these books and we even skipped a couple of periods just to spend time in the library reading.  I think what really pushed me is that there were girls in my class who loved reading and one of them read about 750 words a minute.  This was a time when if you weren't reading, it just wasn't cool at all.  EVERYONE was into this competition.

So, I spent a lot of my time reading so many books, especially those on the list, and later discovered that a few have become some of my favorite books of all time.  I did a couple of book reports on books from the list (this was required!).  I read Warriors:  Into the Wild by Erin Hunter and City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau.  Eventually, I continued on with these series because I became so intrigued and delighted with the stories and they just became a part of me instantly.  

Then I read other books that I have grown to love such as The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall, Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy, and one of the books that has been close to my heart ever since, The Lightning Thief by (Uncle Rick) Rick Riordan.  This was the first time I heard about the series, from a classmate who had written a book report about it, and shared it with the class.  Ever since, I was hooked.  

But the Percy Jackson series was not my favorite series when I was a 6th grader.  It was the beloved Warriors series which I keep even closer to my heart.  This series was the reason I fell in love with books.  Out of the 31 books I had read that year, 13 were from the Warriors series.  

When the competition came, the girls were ready to destroy the boys.  But first, because it was near the end of the year, we celebrated our own Book Day.  You know how when you were younger, you had the A-Z days until the school year was over?  Well we had Book Day.  That was one of the most fun days of my life. We read for a lot of the day, awarded awards to the people who read the most books, and we even had a "play" competition.  We went into groups of 4, and our mission was to act out a scene from one of the books on the list.  My friends and I acted out a scene from the third book of the Warriors series.  Because we were acting as cats, we were on our hands and knees.  And because these cats were well, warriors, we pretend fought :)  Our group won because all the boys approved of our fighting and violence.  Then the competition.  We crushed the boys.  There were three of us girls, including me, that have read the most books and we led our team to victory.  As a prize, we won a book!  Well, we got to pick first.  I got another book from the Warriors series.  It was a good day.

After 6th grade, I continued to read books throughout the years, and now I just finished my junior year of high school.  Since 6th grade, I have read 208 books.  It doesn't seem like a lot for most of you book bloggers out there, but for me, it feels like an accomplishment.  I have made it this far, and I have not stopped, and I never will.  Because of my 6th grade year, books have become my life.  They are a part of me.  I wouldn't have it any other way :)