Weslie Onsando
The first book I remember reading was about a hippo. I’m sure my mum had read me loads of books before then but this is the first one I can remember reading for myself. It was one of those plastic books that you can read in a bath tub and I read it so much I can still remember most of it:
Hilda Hippo likes to swim
She sees the water and jumps right in
She likes the bath she likes the pool
But either way she stays so cool
When on her head she puts a lily
her friends all laugh and call her silly
something something…
That funny sunny hilda hippo!
That was the beginning of my love affair. I’ve always been crazy about books. I was the stay-up-all-night-read-during-class-forgo-meals-ignore-your-friends type reader. I read everything: Judy Blume, some books about lego people, classics, sweet valley, the babysitters club, Princess diaries, nancy drew, famous five, encyclopedias, world books, trivia books, nature books, church books, devotionals . I read everything except R. L Stine (I hate scary things). I was a really easy kid to buy a present for because if you didn’t want to think too much about it, you could always get me a book. In fact, I would go for parties and end up in someone’s bedroom checking out their library. My cousins used to get so mad! At some point in life my dream was to be a librarian. The idea of always being surrounded by books sounded like heaven.
I read because those books were my friends. The characters were familiar and I understood them. George of famous five was so cool and boyish with her short hair that we were totally friends. Margaret from “Are you there God? It’s me Margaret” understood me. She overthought everything! Summer sisters taught me more than I ever needed to know at that age about relationships. It was deliciously wrong and I can remember finishing it at some ungodly hour of the night with a smile on my face. I read because in a book I was always safe. It didn’t matter how bad things were or how hard things got, everything always works out by the end of a book: and everyone is always ok.
Reading was my escape. When my friends and family didn’t understand, Jo from Little Women did. When the teacher couldn’t answer my questions or excite me about learning, the encyclopedia did. When I had nightmares and I couldn’t go to sleep, the gigantic goodnight stories book promptly sorted that out. As I’ve grown, I find that I have less time to spend with the characters that were once so dear to me. However, every so often I find a book that brings it all back, and it’s like I’d never stopped. My magical space where I can silently observe, experience and learn without getting hurt still exists. I open a book, inhale the scent of adventure and I am home.
