Rikki Tikki Tavi

There are so many memories from Elementary school that I cherish. At Bear Street Elementary in Costa Mesa, California one of my favorite days was Friday. That was always afternoon movie day. We'd do schoolwork for half the day and after lunch, if all your work was done, you got to go watch movies. One of my favorite (besides the White Seal) was Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

So to share this childhood memory, here it is...

Take a Ride on the Reading Railroad...

Something happens to me when I read a book.

Noise, commotion, circumstance, location... everything around me disappears.


From the time I was a baby I have loved books. My mom used to read to me every single night. My favorite book of all was Cinderella. I knew it by heart and if my mother was tired that night and tried to skip pages, I knew immediately, even though I could not read yet, and I would make her go back and re-read the skipped parts.

I loved the books like - Suzy the Mouse, The Princess Who Never Laughed, Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever, and any and every Walt Disney Productions Presents book that I received from the book club. There are several that I remember loving, but can not remember the title of. Those books bring back so many warm and secure emotions. When I see a book or bookcover from my childhood, it makes me long for those days when my whole life was between those pages...

As I grew older, and I finally learned to read and comprehend on my own, I became an avid reader. Summers were spent laying across my bed consuming 2, 3 and sometimes even 4 books in one day!

One of these days when I have time, I'm going to compile a list of books that I have loved throughout my lifetime.


I still love to read. I love where books take me. It's a journey each time I turn those pages. I could be sitting in sweltering heat and be shivering cold if the story takes me to snow storms, torrential rain or a crisp clear autumn night.


A friend of mine has told me that when she finishes a book, she has to "mourn" the ending of the characters before she can start a new book. She is so right. I always want to hurry to the good parts and then I prolong the ending and read slower, because I don't want the book to end.



I feel sorry for people who never read...
They have no idea what they are missing!

Queen Catherella