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Summer is an ideal period for reading, or maybe not, but surely during the holidays you can devote more time to books, for me it was so many times.
An unforgettable holiday was the one in which my brother and I used to go through the stalls every evening to hunt for books that often only lasted the next day.
I chose Agatha Christie’s books while he preferred Stephen King‘s ones: it is thanks to him that I read many of them, since when he finished they obviously passed on to me.
It’s a shame when the kids in the summer maybe read less spontaneously, for tasks that have been assigned as homeworks, but there is always the basic hope that “duty” can turn into pleasure thanks to a good book.
And what about children?
Do you remember what was your first book ever? Maybe you still keep it?
As I have already said, I have many memories about the books that I started observing in the home library, I remember for example “Gulliver’s travels” in a vintage edition already then.
The first book from the school library, on the other hand, was “The Paul street boys”.
Among the many books that crowd the memories, I would also mention less classic books: “Anni verdi scarpette rosa” Malipiero edition of 1975 which was the first book received as a gift from a friend, and “Junior Woodchucks Guidebook” publisher Mondadori 1973 because my readings have gone before from the comics: I can’t say how many Mickey Mouse I could have read over and over again.
Now the literary mouse is more sophisticated and imitates a well-known investigator with a whole universe of references to “mice and cheese names” which in my opinion are very valid and amusing, reaching up to the great classics such as the aforementioned Gulliver’s Travels but strictly in Geronimo Stilton’s version.
I also found a nice selection by Survive The Kidz with an additional version of Mouse in this case struggling with cookies, it is a contemporary classic too: published for the first time in 1985, with the particularity of being a circular story.
So, to close the circle, what did you enjoyed to read?
Mice? Men? Of Mice and Men?
Hi I'm Claudia and this is KCDC.
The first book I can remember reading as a child was “Struwwelpeter” by Heinrich Hoffmann. It was a very pedagogigal book telling children what awful things could happen to them if they did not behave correctly.
I was very impressed with the fate of “Hans Guck in die Luft”, a boy named Hans who looked at the sky while walking, he fell into the canal and drowned. I decided that I did not want to drown, so I always looked down at my feet, when walking.
There were other terrible things in this book, like a child who set the house on fire, while playing with matches. And so on, and so forth.
It was a book with pictures and little stories in rhymes, which I learned by heart. Then I sat at the table, held the book in front of me and “read aloud”, in reality I quoted the little stories by heart.
Once my Latvian-Russian-Jewish grandma said, “Olivia, you are holding the book upside down!” She laughed. I got really upset at this cruel remark and because she laughed at me.
So beautiful!
Did you know that I discovered that Der Struwwelpeter has also been translated into Italian? Therefore Hans became Pierino Porcospino.
You were very good since childhood! Learn a whole book by heart by yourself!
And this book has also become important because it brings with it the memory of your grandmother!
Yes, Claudia. I was a bookish child, and later I became a book woman. I live with and through books.
A life with books, growing up with books, living with books, this for me borders on perfection!
I do not know about perfection but it is a certain way of life. Some people devote themselves to sports or science or politics, whatever. Some devote themselves to books.
Is there a precise moment when you realized that you were going to become a writer or did you actually know it all along?
I think, I knew it actually all along. The first time I realized that I did well in writing was at the age of 16, when my German teacher at school in Heidelberg sent one of my essays to the local newspaper, and they reprinted it and gave me a little prize. This was a lot of help for me to see my way for the future clearly.
Great!!
Being a publication at 16 is truly remarkable!
Sincere applause!
Your teacher had a great idea.
Yes, this teacher was excellent. I am forever thankful to her, her name was Dr. Gaedecke ( a doctor title in literature). She taught German languange and literature, as well as history.
I love when a teacher leaves an important mark on their pupils’ lives.
Chapeau also to Dr. Gaedecke.
Yes, chapeau! She was a marvellous teacher and an outstanding woman.
Did you ever get to see her or hear her again?
No, unfortunately not. She was my teacher at the beginning of the 1960s. At that time she was about 55 years old, I guess.
That was about 60 years ago. She would be 115 years old today. How time flies!
Do not tell me!!
Time flies a lot, despite some difficult moments seem endless, then when you turn back you see that you have still faced a long way that you left behind.
Not to mention when I look at my son and I don’t understand how he can already be so tall!
Please tell me some more about your son, Claudia: What is his name, how old is he, and what does he do?
Lorenzo is 17 years old and he studies computer science, today is the last day of school of his fourth year of high school, from tomorrow he will start a stage..
So I wish Lorenzo good look with school and the stage. You mentioned he is very tall. How tall is he?
Actually he is tall for me because he grows fast, but according to him he is too short 🙂 he often repeats that.
Height is relative, I guess.
Sure!
But he cares about it.
Well, he will probably care about other things, later in life. Haven’t we all got strange hangups as teenagers?
I thought my skirts were too long, my mother did not allow me to wear miniskirts. She said they looked vulgar. I thought she was soooooooooo oldfashioned!
Now I think myself that miniskirts are vulgar. I have become just like my mother. Tastes change during the years of life.
You are right.
There are more important things and above all there are ideas that change.
The example you gave regarding mini skirts is perfect.
In adolescence there is a mixture of rebellion and at the same time an impulse to homologate to fashions.
Then fortunately as we mature each of us develops his own personal taste and acquires a different vision of things.
This consoles me in the moments when I give speeches to my son: even if now my words may not seem completely understandable, I am serene because I know that one day he will understand them.
And later in life he will remember your words fondly. He will quote you to his children, “as my mother always said …..”
Oh that would be really wonderful!! <3