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The Lang-Lit Mocktail

ELTIS-SIFIL Blog:

Books I Grew Up Reading


“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”- Plutarch

They say young minds can shape and mould more easily than others and this couldn’t be truer because thinking back now, I realise that a huge part of my love for reading developed at a young age. (That doesn’t mean it’s too late for you to start now!)

My school librarian, Ms. Mandanna would read to us all the fairy tales and stories that would forever ignite our interest and love for reading.

I can still picture it like it were just yesterday when I was sitting on the corridor floor outside the tiny kids’ library and eagerly listening to her read out a new story to us: ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog’, ‘Astérix’, ‘The Adventures of Tintin’, ‘The Magic School Bus’ and so many more.

Distinctly I’m hit with a strong wave of nostalgia as I flashback to the past where I can almost smell the fresh scent of yellowing paper and the feel of an abridged classic hardcover of a Charles Dickens book or Lewis Carroll or some other author in my hands.

I can still feel the warm sunlight trickling in the library; the soft, soothing melody of the wind chimes at the window. I can still see the specks of saliva fly out the corners of Ms. Mandanna’s mouth as she would go into ecstasies and rhapsodize while she modulated and changed the pitch and tone of her voice as she stepped into the different characters in the books. (Students please note that this is where and how I learnt how to express myself through dramatic and loud reading- the best way to learn and read is through listening and observation; it’s not something that can necessarily be taught to someone.)

(Anyway, back to where I left off!) We sat there taking in all that she said. Most of it I hardly understood at the time but thinking back, a huge chunk of the phrases and vocabulary that I mysteriously picked up over time and use today are strangely British!

Guess it wasn’t so much learning from textbooks and what was taught in a class but what I picked up by reading and listening to my British and American teachers i.e. the writers who changed my life forever! (The school library and story-telling period was my absolute favourite place and time growing up); so, word to the wise, start reading more or listen to audiotapes of books. Believe me it helps!

I can still vividly remember the librarian reading, ’A Little Princess’ a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett to us. I still remember pitying the young girl, Sara Crewe. Listening to the story being read out aloud, I found myself walking in her shoes.

I could feel the silk and satin dress and loving kisses from her rich father Captain Crewe. I could feel the shift in status from a luxuriant and vibrant living to one of squalor and heartbreak when her father dies and she is ill-treated by her boarding school headmistress. When she is finally discovered by her father’s business partner, I was transported back to times of good fortune and happiness just like Sara!

Ms. Mandanna also introduced me to some great children’s authors like Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl. I was soon a hopeless fanatic! I would be lost in a world of adventure and mystery through the eyes of George (Georgina- a tomboy) and her cousins Julian, Anne, Dick and their dog Timmy. I felt myself getting scared when “we” roamed outside at night or when “we” managed to meddle and get “ourselves” in a soup.

My mouth still waters as I distinctly remember the smells and tastes of the canned sausages, sliced ham as pink as Timmy’s (the pet dog) tongue! (a true fan of Enid Blyton would remember this line for sure), crisply fried bacon, freshly picked garden lettuce and tomatoes, wobbly blancmange, and other such scrumptiously described meals that they shared.(I had never tasted or even heard of most of these dishes prior to this, but reading about them I strangely just knew what they tasted or smelled like! Super weird right??!)

Before I knew it, I also found myself levitating towards other books of Enid’s like ‘The Secret Seven’ which had Peter, Janet, Pam, Barbara, Jack, Colin and George. I knew them inside-out, by first name! They were my partners-in-crime (pun intended though we weren’t the criminals) as I solved mysteries along with them. I would be infuriated with and sometimes sympathetic towards Jack's sister Susie and her best friend Binkie who also made occasional appearances throughout the books.

‘The Five Find-Outers’ was another great collection that I believe I read religiously every Diwali or Summer break that I got. I also managed to squeeze in a couple of ‘Nancy Drew’ and ‘Hardy Boys’ books by writer Edward Stratemeyer (although I must admit, I wasn’t as huge a fan of his books as I was of Enid Blyton. I still read her books, believe me when I say they can never be outgrown!)

My love for reading these books strengthened not just my imagination but also took me on a trip around the world. I closed my eyes and opened my mind and in a blink was on vacation in Barbados or some other part of the globe, solving murder mysteries and burglaries, catching criminals.

The quote by Derek Walcott (attentive students may also remember this being mentioned in our Speakfast Foundation course book) comes to mind immediately, “I read; I travel; I become.”

I too learnt the languages, met the people, tasted the cuisines, felt the warmth of culture and humanity through the comfort and within the confines of my room!

Mortimer J. Adler had once said, “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”

The language I speak today is and will always be heavily immersed in the terms and words I picked up by reading throughout my childhood. I haven’t read a lot of books, neither would claim to be an avid reader or a bibliophile but I do know that the books I dove into, shaped who I am today and that’s for sure!

I am hugely and infinitely grateful to my school teacher and librarian Ms. Mandanna (wherever you are, thanks a ton, I hope you read this!) for helping ignite a fire for knowledge and a quest for learning in me!

*Remember, there isn’t an age limit nor a time limit to any of these books. So, let’s bring back your childhood and reignite your love for reading with the help of these recommended authors and their books!

Happy reading!

Enid Blyton- ‘Famous Five’ series, ‘Secret Seven’ series, ‘The Five Find-Outers’ series and more (Did you know Enid Blyton created and wrote the stories of the much-beloved character ‘Noddy’!)

Frances Hodgson Burnett - ‘A Little Princess’, ‘The Secret Garden’ and more

Norman Bridwell- ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog’

René Goscinny, Alberto Aleandro Uderzo and Jean-Yves Ferri- ‘Astérix’ (Comic magazine)

Herge (Georges Remi)- ‘The Adventures of Tintin’

Joanna Cole, Nancy E. Krulik, Robbin Cuddy, Jackie Posner, Lenore Notkin- ‘The Magic School Bus’

Charles Dickens -  ‘Oliver Twist’,‘A Christmas Carol’, ’David Copperfield’, ’A Tale of Two Cities’, ’Great Expectations’ (abridged versions are also available)

Lewis Carroll - ‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’, ‘Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There’ (includes "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter")

Roald Dahl- ‘The Gremlins’ , ‘James and the Giant Peach’ , ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ , ‘Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories' , ‘Boy: Tales of Childhood’ , ‘Matilda' (He also has collections of short stories and books for adult readers)


Carolann Carrasco

Full time Faculty, ELTIS

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