text added by Kaye Spencer
For #ThrowbackThursday during the month of July, I will share my favorite books from my upper elementary and junior high school years. This was way back in the days when there wasn’t kindergarten for country kids (me), elementary school was 1st through 6th grades, junior high was 7th through 9th grades, and high school was 10th, 11th, and 12th grades.
The only book I remember a teacher reading aloud as we followed along was Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates when I was in 5th grade. In 4th grade, my teacher read aloud The Little House on the Prairie series at the end of the school day, all year long, as we gathered up to go home.
I suffered through, an I mean suffered through and have the emotional scars to prove it, Black Beauty, Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller, Jack London’s stories and books, and all those other “classics” with animals in them and SOMETHING ALWAYS BAD HAPPENED TO THE ANIMALS!!! I consequently have trust issues when I pick up a book and discover there’s an animal in it that plays a significant role in the story. Nope. Won’t read it.
Anyway…
For today, July 6th, a book that opened up the historical fiction genre for me when I was in about 6th grade was the American Revolution novel Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. It was published in 1954. Wikipedia tells us:
“…The book won the 1944 Newbery Medal and was believed to be ‘among the 20 best-selling children’s books of the 20th century.’ It was estimated to be the 16th-bestselling children’s paperback book as of the year 2001 in the United States, according to Publishers Weekly….”
Until next time,
Kaye Spencer
Lasterday Stories
writing through history one romance upon a time