As mentioned in our previous post, the Book Review Sisters is involved in author Martin King’s #100blogfest, where he is writing 100 blogs about his childhood, over the month of August. Today, it’s our turn to host Martin 🙂
It seems only fitting to tell a book story about when I was younger seeing as this post is going on a book review site.
When I was little I didn’t read books. Yeah, my mum bought and read to me stories from the Ladybird book range. Stories such as ‘The Little Red Hen’, and ‘The Old Woman and the Pig’. Then there was ‘The Magic Cooking Pot’ and ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’ to mention just a few.
I also remember the coloured Pirate series at school…remember the Red Pirate and the Blue Pirate? But I wasn’t a big reader by any stretch of the imagination because I was a boy and boys didn’t read. We did more macho things like play out and play football. Build swings in trees and make dens in the woods.
But I did discover a read that kept me going for years thanks to the local library. I don’t even know if such premises are used that much these days, but often I would visit two, three times a week in the hope that one of the books in the series had made its way from a different library to mine.
However, it wasn’t just one series of books, it was two. And I’m sure I could sit here and write two blogs about each one. They were Asterix annuals and Tintin. You notice the common denominator? They were both picture story books. I loved them.
From defeating the Romans by using the magic potion to beating the bad guys to the treasure with his able companion – snowy, both these books managed to keep my imagination alive. And perhaps it is this memory more than all the others, which may have planted a seed somewhere deep down, for me to become a children’s author.
So for all those boys that don’t like reading, I say bring back comic book style storytelling, even more so today in this electronically controlled life we find ourselves in. If I ever do go onto becoming a very Successful author, I will do all I can to put my stories into a comic book style story!!!
These blogs are all about fun and sharing. Thank you for reading a ‘#100blogfest’ blog. Please follow this link to find the next blog in the series: http://martinkingauthor.com/blog/7094550076
Helen is a strange combination of fiction editor and web strategist. That’s because she loves fiction and the internet – and analytics! A former business analyst and IT support manager, Helen now spends her time parenting her three children as well as running her editing and web agency businesses. As a book reviewer and fiction editor, her one true love and specialty is Christian romance fiction.
Smashing little piece. And anything that encourages children to read has got be good.
I love stories told in comic book style. So many books are converted into graphic novels now. It's a great time for readers, including the young boys you mentioned, to have fun reading stories in comic book form. They've even converted classics into graphic novels!