MY FAVORITE BOOK!

Do you remember your favorite book when you were growing up? Was it a tale of iron-clad knights and fair maidens? Or robots and laser beams? Was the main character a gentlemanly, green toad? Or a dappled pony? Maybe it was about a mischievous little girl named Louise or two investigative brothers called the Hardy Boys?

I can remember my favorite book. It was about a wise man-beggar who traveled lands far and wide to bring peace to troubled people suffering from war and famine. Although I can't find it today, the title, I believe, was "The Beggar's Tales."

I also grew up with stories from the Bible, Greek myths and Paddington the Bear. And, of course, there were the historical biographies that we used to read in second grade: like "Squanto," "John Paul Jones," "Daniel Morgan," "Johnny Tremain" and "Black Hawk." Once I started one of these books, I'd be gone for hours, tucked away in my secret reading cave, often forgetting to come home for dinner.

But even before I could read, I remember the books read to me each night by my mother. Books like "The Hobbit," "Watership Down" and "Wind in the Willows." Years later I would reread these books on my own. A habit I picked up then, which I continue somewhat today, was to stop reading and to snack whenever the characters in the book stopped for their own meals.

Because I read a lot of quest narratives and books about pioneers and Indians and because I wanted to munch on whatever my friends in the books were eating, I always had lots of apples and cheese and stale bread nearby. Saving up the money I made from chores, I would even stop at the Quick Shop to buy beef jerky; there's nothing like sitting around a camp fire with Kit Carson or Daniel Boone and champing down on a Slim Jim.

As far as food goes, however, my favorite book was the first in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkein. That's because at the end of this book the good guys spend time in an enchanted elfin forest, where they are given a special food to sustain them on the remainder of their journey. This food is described as "very thin cakes made of a meal that was baked a light brown on the outside and inside was the color of cream." Of course, the nearest thing to this that I knew at the time were cream-filled Hostess Fruit Cakes. Thus, all my chore money went to fruit cakes that summer. Scrumptious!

Like the words "Open Sesame" were to Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, books can be a magical password to priceless treasures for those who read them. Books whisk us away to foreign lands and distant times. They pique our imagination and teach us noble qualities. They encourage us to think. And they teach us to try new things and to question the old.

It's curious how much books we read as children affect us. My girlfriend's favorite book while growing up, for example, was "I Have a Sister My Sister is Deaf." Now, among other things, she is a professional interpreter for the deaf and a scholar on international sign languages.

Books we read as small children don't always impact us so strongly. Without a doubt, though, they impact us.

On this page, several community leaders talk about their favorite book while growing up. It is fun to look at what they list, and their descriptions are inspirational.

Of course, this is all a reminder. If you have children, please take the time to read to them. If your children are older, recommend a book to them, or, pass the newspaper on to them a couple of times each week and talk together about what's going on in the world.

Most importantly, set an example. Turn off the television and read. Like nothing else, reading empowers. And it can be the best thing you can do for your children, your family and yourself.

Finally, if you are young, in your teens or under 10, read for the fun of it! These people, all leaders in their own fields, will tell you about how great that can be!

Nancy Bray

Director of Marketing and Communications

Southeast Missouri Hospital

"Soon after learning how to read with my best friend Anne, I discovered the wonderful adventures of the Bobbsey Twins. I first met them at the Cape Girardeau Public Library while on weekly trips there with my parents. Soon they became the new books I was buying with my own money at Osterloh's Book Store on Main Street (although Nancy Drew mysteries put a claim on my allowance, too).

"Perhaps as an only child, I was especially attracted to stories about a family with TWO sets of twins! Flossie and Freddie and Nan and Bert Bobbsey became my constant companions. I went everywhere with them, and each book had a different destination: the country, the seashore, school, a snow lodge, a houseboat, the county fair, Blueberry Island and Washington, D.C., to name a few. I was in and out of many a close call with them, too.

"Thanks to the Bobbsey Twins, I became hooked on books. Because of them and their author, Laura Lee Hope, I have a lifelong addiction to the printed word, to the smell and feel of a new book, and to traveling through time in libraries."

Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr.

Judge

Missouri Supreme Court

Favorite Book: "Rabble in Arms" by Kenneth Roberts.

"I read this work of historical fiction, along with two others of Robert's ("Arundel" and "Northwest Passage") during the summers between eighth, ninth and tenth grades of school. The book chronicles the heroism of Benedict Arnold at Ticonderago and Saratoga during the Revolutionary War.

"My reading coincided with a family vacation to upstate New York, Maine and Quebec when I was 16, and I saw first-hand the settings of all three books.

"Although the account of Arnold is somewhat sentimental, it was intriguing to see the traitor portrayed as a great leader and, indeed, as the one most responsible for the success at Saratoga, the turning point of the war. As a history major in college, I was inspired by Roberts to write a paper in defense of Arnold. But, after researching the matter, I concluded to my chagrin that although Arnold was a brilliant military officer, he deserves, in the final analysis, to have his name synonymous with treason!"

Kim K. McDowell

NIE Coordinator

Favorite Books: "The Secret Garden" and "When We Were Six"

"`When We Were Six'" by A.A. Milne, also the author of Winnie the Pooh, is a book of poetry my mother read to me. I liked the rhythm and rhyme, the illustrations, and the characters in each poem, all who were brave. It was later in grade school that "The Secret Garden" was read aloud by our teacher every day after lunch. I loved the bravery of the children."

Craig Felzien

Area Manager

Southwestern Bell Telephone

Favorite Book: "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury

"This book opened my mind to the `what ifs' of science fiction and created a wonderful feeling of escape to far-away places for me.

"Fiction literature provides for unlimited adventure and creativity. I'm more creative in solving day-to-day situations when I expose myself to creative literature.

I HAVE to read. Reading sparks my creativity and calms my inner-psyche miraculously all at the same time."

Susanna Baylon

Reporter/Anchor

KFVS Television News

Favorite Book: "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl (author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory")

"`James and the Giant Peach' was the first `non-picture' book I read. I was in first grade and I remember once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It is a magical story, filled with colorful characters.

"There are a few illustrations in the book, but they really weren't necessary because Dahl is so descriptive in his writing. After finishing the book, I remember telling my friends and teacher that they had to read it. Several weeks later, my teacher read it to the class.

"Since then I've reread the story many times. It's a classic, and every time I read it I smile."

Ed Slaughter

Wellness Specialist

Chairman of the Cape Girardeau Civic Center Board

Favorite Book: "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe

"It was a wonderful story about conscience and guilt. It would be a better place if we all had `Tell-Tale Hearts' that bothered us when we did something wrong."

Jean Bell Mosley

Free Lance Writer

Favorite Book: "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame

"This book was my introduction to words and phrases that made me feel warm and cozy inside `sooth~ing murmur of sound,' `flower gemmed water's edge,' etc. My imagination grew by quantum leaps. I wanted to live in the same kind of world where Rat, Mole, Toad and Badger lived. Each looked out for the other's welfare, rejoiced in moments of happiness, tolerated shortcomings, comforted each other in sorrow.

"When Rat (all characters are anthropomorphized) heard the wind in the willows as bubbly music, clean and happy, he was utterly enraptured while Mole heard only the prosaic wind playing in the reeds. I thought that Rat was on to something, and that there was another world of richness of sound, texture, wonder and beauty running parallel to ordinariness.

"I have listened intensely, looked acutely so as to See, Hear and Feel in this other dimension. Sometimes I find Rat's world. Thanks, Rat!

Mary K. Wulfers

City Council Member

City of Cape Girardeau

Favorite Book: "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain

"This was one of my most favorite books because I loved the adventure! I've always been enamored with the period of the story. Plus, the fact that the story's setting originates in Hannibal, Mo., and my being from St. Louis, added much credibility and immediacy to the tale.

"I could pretend that it was me floating down the Mississippi River right along with ol' Huck. Never taking a bath and fishing all the time also agreed with me in my youth (I was such a tomboy). Huck's carefree lifestyle and his search for place and family were goals of mine, also.

"I could identify with Huck in so many ways. He was a friend."

Gary Rust

Publisher

Favorite Book: Classic Comic Book versions of "The Bible"

"These were my favorite because the stories were exciting! And they were simplified versions of Sunday School lessons that I sometimes had difficulty in following.

"I basically enjoyed any story where the good person won at the end by never giving up and overcoming many obstacles."

Miki Gudermuth

Pet Portraiture Artist

Trash Collection Activist

Favorite Book: "Miracle Worker the Story of Helen Keller"

"Having had polio at nine months of age left me much time to read while recuperating at Shriner's Hospital. My mother, sensing I needed all the encouragement I could get brought me books on heroic individuals who faced the test of survival in all conditions.

"The story of Helen Keller struck me harder than any other book on survival because she could not see or hear since soon after birth. The only sense she realized was that of touch, something everyone takes for granted.

"Helen overcame a silent world one I could not imagine. Yet she saw and understood more than many of us with all our senses working.

"Whenever I doubted my strength and wanted to feel sorry for myself because I couldn't walk or run, or the pain I had to overcome with each operation began to overwhelm me, I thought of her, and I felt ashamed.

"I also learned to feel more, to touch more, to close my eyes when I touch. I have deliberately closed my ears to feel vibrations, to watch others speak without hearing, and then shut my eyes to just simply feel things.

"Everyone should do it to read it to make themselves aware of the fact that no matter how bad things can seem to you at any given moment, they're nothing like what someone else might be experiencing.

"I love her quote, `We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.' Without pain and adversity, we wouldn't know the joys of life. You never know what you can do until you have to. With God, nothing is impossible."

Thad Bullock

Democratic Nominee

U.S. Congress, Missouri 8th District

Favorite Book: "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain

"One of the contributing factors as to why this was my favorite book is that as a boy I wanted to survive and make it on my own. That portion of Huck Finn's voyage down the Mississippi River gave me food for thought.

"Also, where Tom Sawyer `reluctantly allowed' his pals to whitewash the fence getting the job done diplomatically is like a lesson in diplomacy. This I related to. This appealed to me.

"I also liked the books that were written by Horatio Alger Hiss Jr. They were success stories. Some of the titles I remember were like `Do or Die,' `Sink or Swim,' etc., where goals were achieved by never giving up, by stick-to-it-iveness."

Ken Newton

Editor

Favorite Book: "Ball Four" by Jim Boutin

"While I should probably celebrate the humanity of Atticus Finch by listing here `To Kill A Mockingbird,' the book I remember best from my growing up is `Ball Four.'

"`Ball Four' is a season-long diary of an aging major league pitcher, and it proved controversial at the time of its publication for shattering myths surrounding an American institution, baseball.

"For a sophomore boy having been raised on a steady diet of sports books with milquetoast protagonists, `Ball Four' was an eye-opener, offering a loving portrait of a game while showing that heroes are also humans.

"The characters in the book seem to me as petty and fallible and funny today as when I first read `Ball Four' 21 years ago."

Tasha Saeker

Coordinator of Children's Services

Cape Girardeau Public Library

Favorite Book: "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase" by Joan Aiken

"As a young girl, I enjoyed this book because it is about the strength and spirit of children. Three children get into a lot of trouble and are trapped in school. I particularly enjoyed the fact that one of the children was defiant and tough, yet cared for the weak. She was and is a model of women's strength."

Thank you everyone! I hope all of you enjoyed reading these descriptions as much as I did. And until next year, keep on reading!