Book Love - Charlotte's Web Grabs Lishie for Life

When a true book lover is asked about their first book love, oftentimes, it takes a little bit of digging before they can unearth the book that you can identify as the first of them all. I love to watch and listen to people go through this type of literary archeology. When I asked Elisha, or Lishie, of the DeLish foodie blog and and Art for an Archangel blog, she literally typed out this initial dig in a sort of stream of consciousness way that I just loved and had to share with you. I think this is the perfect way to introduce you to Lishie and to allow her to reveal her first book love:

From as far back as I can remember I have simply loved books. All books. I was the type of little girl who would keep quiet & be silently in awe of the spines of books as well as the inside contents... Bring me into a library or book store & I would lose myself... Bring me into any variety store & I would find a book. That said, I fell in love many times. With my baby books, my Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie collection, with my brother's blue, hard cover Hardy Boys set, with my grandfather's battered red Scrabble Dictionary, with Beverly Cleary's "Mouse & the Motorcycle" a teacher read us as a class a chapter a day... over & over again...  But, being that I grew up in rural South Florida with dirt roads & very much left to my own device, one book touched me with a deep, true love... Charlotte's Web.

 

Ah... yes. Charlotte. Once I read Lishie's response, I was immediately struck by the fact that no one else had mentioned this book in my previous queries. I, personally, loved the story, but somehow saw the animated version before I ever sat down to  read the book, so my love is always associated with the film.

For Lishie it was different, at around six or seven years of age she received the book Charlotte's Web by E.B. White as a gift and although she "cannot recall from whom," she was immediately drawn in by both the animals and the friendships. She said, "The characters come alive in this book. It shows so many things... Compassion, sharing, the circle of life... Friendship."

Lishie was a self-described "nature kid" and tom boy who didn't completely shy away from the feminine. As an animal lover who would take care of any animal in need, she could relate to this story, while still finding the wonders of literary escapism in a story with talking animals.

Through Fern's example, Lishie learned a very powerful lesson, "...that even a little girl could make a difference." She looks forward to sharing this the book with her own son when he is old enough to appreciate it, but in the meantime, they "recently went to see it acted out on stage together at the Paper Mill Playhouse" which I think is just about the coolest thing ever!

Lishie's relationship with reading before and after reading Charlotte's Web, as you can probably imagine, has always been pretty fantastic, in her own words:

Reading was definitely something that saved me... from boredom and more... It took me places when I was terrified and showed me the world even at a young age I knew this. KNEW.

She didn't skip a beat after finding her first book love with E.B. White, she says she has, "plenty of room in [her] heart for many book loves. It's like having more than one child, I suppose." Some of her top book loves (besides Charlotte's Web, of course) include Les Miserables, Wuthering Heights, Jane Austen and she's also a reader of scifi and mystery!

Finally, I'd like to leave you with one last thought from Lishie that I speaks to what we all love about Charlotte's Web, whichever way we came to the story over the years. When I asked her which piece of Charlotte's Web that still resonates with her today, here is what Lishie had to say:

All of it... But most importantly, a runt is only worthless if you treat him as such.

Such an enormous life lesson echoed by the littlest of the litter.

About Lishie

Here's just a little bit more about Lishie, and where you can find her on the web (not Charlotte's!):

I'm a F/T working mom of a Special Needs 3 yr old in NJ (so, yes, I have 2 full time jobs!) who loves to cook, bake & eat with her family every night. I also love to craft & DIY. And reading is like breathing to me :)

DeLish - A food blog
http://delish-lishie.blogspot.com/

art for an archangel - a craft/DIY blog
http://lishiesangel.blogspot.com/

Did you read Charlotte's Web or see the movie?

What did you think?

(I am haven't been able to get Templeton's "Smorgasbord" song out of my head the whole time I have been writing up this post!)

What was your first book love?  

The Kreativ Blogger Award

I got such a surprise Thursday night on my blog, when I saw that Sandra from A Writer Weaves A Tale selected me as a recipient of The Kreativ Blogger Award along with six other Kreative Kats! Check out her blog post for the fellow honorees.

In the meantime, I am now supposed to tell you seven interesting things about myself. I suppose that is to replace any sort of embarrassing acceptance speech that can go on unchecked as there is no polite music to cue to let me know to cut it out. So, in that case... let's think "interesting." (Now it's time for me to get really "kreativ"!)

Paul Erdos, famous mathematician and collaborator

1. I'm kind of a liar, and an über-geek. It occurred to me yesterday, after putting up my post about Write On Edge that, while I started out by saying "I am not published," that I was incorrect in making that statement. I am published. In a Mathematics Journal called Congressus Numeratum. I was a coauthor of some research in Graph Theory that I worked on in Rutgers University. This publication gives me the distinct nerd qualification of a having an Erdos number of two, the highest possible now that Erdos has passed away, but only the geekiest of Math nerds have any clue what that means! (Or you can read this. I coauthored a paper with the fantasticly fun John Gordon Gimbel.)
2. I respond to sugar and caffeine the way most people respond to drugs and alcohol. I don't drink coffee, tea, or soda on a regular basis. My body has no threshold point for caffeine or sugar. When I do have any of these beverages, even if it is one glass, I can not sleep. If I consume more than one glass, or if I have more chocolate than I really should, then I have the energy and focus of a five year old child. This can help or hinder the writing the process - some days it helps me write a lot very quickly and gives me quirky, funny ideas, other times it gets me so distracted I can not even form sentences. Luckily, today was the former. (I, idiotically brought my chocolate bar OUT of the refrigerator and sat it next to me while I wrote. I ate half the thing in minutes - that bar could've lasted me weeks!)
3. My first beagle, Chewy, literally walked into my house in the middle of a winter's night. It was 2am, I was making some Mac n' Cheese for my friends in the basement, my mom was asleep when all of a sudden my brother came into the kitchen saying he heard a dog crying outside. It was snowing, so we opened the door, worried it was our Wheaton terrier, Ashley. The door opened and a blur of fur blazed through my legs. My brother and I both barely got out, "What the heck was that?!" When all of a sudden we heard the "Awww!" from my friends in the basement. Chewy was a four month old beagle puppy with no tags that hadn't grown into her ears yet. I tried to find her owners for weeks, then she cut her ear and I had to take her to the vet. There they asked her name and put her under my care. She was my furry baby for twelve years. 
4. I can't do a push-up. This was something I suspected for a while, but finally confirmed about two weeks ago with my face planted on my hardwood floor, completely unable to move it up. I am now working on striking this interesting fact from my list by attempting to do weird-o push-ups with my legs across my couch so that my face is already off the floor. These are more like hold-ups than push-ups, but I have to start somewhere with my pathetic weakness. I can't believe this was once a certified lifeguard swimmer's body! I'd probably drown just doing a 25 now!!
5. I'm terrified of aliens, but I love sci-fi. I'm really not sure what to say about this. It started with E.T. He is a brown, ugly turd who scared the hell out of me as a child. Then there were glimpses of the movies Communion and Close Encounters of the Third Kind - both terrifying again. However, in the interim, I fell in love with Star Wars, Star Trek and all of their characters, no matter how alien they looked. And now I am in love with the Doctor, you know Doctor Who, another alien and a show full of aliens. So I really don't know what's up. But I promise you this, if you show me a picture of E.T. or try to eat Reese's Pieces (E.T. food) around me, I will scream... some fears are just embedded.
6. Those "You Know You Love It" commercials were made to torture me. Back in 2010 I found out that one of the reasons that I have so many digestive issues is that I have an intolerance to both dairy and gluten. Before this diagnosis I could eat Kraft Macaroni and Cheese every single day of my life without a single complaint. I didn't, but I'm just saying, I could have. So, after buying a CostCo wholesale pack of ten boxes of the stuff and then finding out about my allergies, I had to sever the tie completely. It has been difficult, as all of my gluten-free and dairy-free living has been, but those damn commercials really make me want to cry. When they say "You know you love it," I always answer, "I do, you sick bastards, now LEAVE ME ALONE!" I've gotten pretty good at avoiding the commercials, I recognize them now, but last weekend they showed one in the movie theater and the cheesy goodness was enormous and delicious looking. It wasn't right. Someone should do something about this brilliant marketing campaign.

Bastards.

7. My home is my home, which is my home. People always find it interesting that I have lived in the same home for my entire life. I suppose it is. The first time I "moved" was when I got married and I moved from my bedroom to the master bedroom. I love my home, it is truly all I know in terms of a home. This home is where my heart is. I am lucky to have it and pray that I can keep it. I think everyone who is in the unemployed, disabled position that I am has the same fears, but in the case of an inherited home I just hate to think that after all these years I was the one who dropped the ball. 

And NOW (drum roll, please!) I present to you the seven bloggers that I deem to be Kreativ Bloggers! You should check them all out (as I do), so that you can be further enlightened by their Kreativ -ity.

• There is Morgan over at A Writer's Universe who is, among other things, working on her memoir these days. Morgan shares prompts and writer inspirations regularly.
• Pandora Poikilos is an author and blogger who is not only creative, but she is also a great sharer. On her blog she hosts a blog-a-licious tour that is a fantastic place to meet new bloggers from all over the Internet and world.
• Chris over at The Pedestrian Writer is also working on a book right now, but I think he might actually be heading home for the holidays soon. I love Chris' blog posts for the sincerity of his voice and his take-no-prisoners stance on all topics he is passionate about.
• There's Dawn over at Fabulous Follow Through who's been experimenting with photography in between sharing golf stories and reflections. Dawn is an amazing mom, wife and friend for life.
• Then there's Eric from I Can't Brain Today; I Have The Dumb who continues to entertain me with his musical (and geeky) musings when he isn't too busy at the helm of Studio30Plus.
• Each week I am treated to wonderful stories from JDaniel4's Mom all about JDaniel. They are so sweet, endearing and give a unique voice to the Mom blogging world.
• And the final blog and blogger is Galen from 10 Steps to Finding Your Happy Place (and Staying There). Galen's blog is a happy place all its own and I love to visit for quiet reflections of wonder and wellness.

So that's it. Now I have to go congratulate all those who I have bestowed this great honor upon! Thanks again to Sandra!

Who would you nominate for a Kreativ Blogger Award, or plain old Kreativ Person Award, if we had one?

What do those people do that inspire you to think of them this way?