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| My daughter Ellen in the local library |
By Laurie Epps
So much of my identity is
wrapped up in books that to really know me, my daughters would have to read
some of my most favorite books to know anything about me.
In the Joy Luck Club,
Ying-Ying attributes her daughter’s instability in the present to her past own
weakness: “Now I must tell my daughter everything. That she is the daughter of
a ghost. She has no chi. This is my greatest shame. How can I leave this
world without leaving her my spirit?” (286)
This is not only a record
for me, but also for all of my daughters, in hopes that they will know my
spirit. Much of who I am is wrapped up in the pages of these following books.
For the young girl:
The Little Engine That Could
by Watty Piper
As a girl, I’d make my
brother Robert read this to me over and over again. Young girls truly need to
believe that they can do, and become anything.
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
by Laura Joffe Numeroff
This is my favorite
children’s book as an adult. In a fun, and inclining way, this book really
demonstrates that some people are never satisfied. No matter how much you do
for them, they just want more.
“Stand Back,” said the Elephant, “I’m
Going to Sneeze!”
by Patricia
Thomas
Delighted with humor, this
was a relatable story for me as child because I’ve always suffered with
allergies. It also probably crept into my library as a girl, because it gave my
mom a chance to talk to me about covering my nose & mouth when I’d cough or
sneeze.
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| With author Patricia Thomas at the Writers Plot Conference in 2012 |
For girls in 5th-8th
Grade:
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
This was a favorite book
of my grandmother Everitt, my mother, and I. Part of what makes this a
wonderful story is that it’s told with four strong narratives of the March
sisters. I love that it’s so sweet and introduces strong themes of family,
love, and friendship. Little Women is so encouraging, in part, because it
teaches girls that even though life is always changing, it can still be pretty
darn good.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
I remember being assigned
this book in junior high by an English teacher, and I began reading the book
with a closed mind. My thought was, “This is a boy’s book.” Truly, it’s not.
Written by a sixteen year old girl, the
Outsiders goes in depth with the “socs” and the “greasers.” The socs were
upper middle class kids at the local high school, and the greasers were the
poor kids from the wrong side of the tracks. I fell in love with the characters
in the book, and fell in love again with them on the screen (All the 80s
heart-throbs were in it.) But on a deeper level, thematically it talks about
tolerance. No matter what walk of life you come from, problems are just the
same, and it’s rough all over.
Laurie Epps is a recent graduate of Anderson
University majoring in Creative Writing. Already Laurie is most published as a
feature article writer, essayist, and poet. A seeker of beauty,
her is dream is to travel the world one day and tell the many stories of those
she meets. Columns include: Monday Morning Book Club, and Thoughtful Thursdays,
a column dedicated to the fine art of poetry.
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