The 10 Days Book Challenge: Day 1 – Favorite book. Explain why you like it.

For this day in the challenge, I have decided to travel back in time to my childhood. Some may think it’s a cop-out, but these books have stayed with me throughout my entire life. Also, in true Sara O spirit, I couldn’t chose just ONE favorite book, so I decided to write about my top 2.

So, I’ll start with the one that always comes to mind first. Monsters And My One True Love by Dian Curtis Regan.

This is the fourth and final installment in the Monsters of the Month series. The story follows a 13 year old girl who receives a monster toy each month which then comes to life at the worst possible time. The monsters aren’t scary, they are more like pets. In this book, she is trying to hide her monsters as well as dealing with her Aunt’s wedding.

I guess I related to the book because she  has a very free-spirited mother and a father she will be meeting for the first time in this book. I met my dad when I was 10, and although my mom was not AS free spirited as her mother (who changed her name to Sparrow Harmony Earth), I still consider her to be a very free spirit and child at heart even now in her 40’s.  Of course, the book also tugs at my heart strings with the budding romance between her and her friend. What can I say, deep in my heart of hearts, I’m just a big romantic.

My other all time favorite book  is How I Survived Being A Girl by Wendelin Van Draanen.

When I read this book, I was 12 years old, the exact same age as the main character, Carolyn . I was never a ‘girly’ girl when I was younger and Carolyn was the ultimate tomboy. Staying out, getting dirty with her brothers, building forts, digging an actual tunnel in the yard, all those things sound so amazingly fun to me.

There is one thing that will always stay with me when it comes to this book. Towards the end of the book, when she starts to give in to being a girl, she finds out her mother is pregnant. As fate would have it, shortly after finishing this book, I got the news that my mom was pregnant.  Now my sister is 11 and I have passed down this book to her.