The Deja-vu blogfest is here! Our lovely hosts are DL Hammons, Katie Mills, Lydia Kang, and Nicole Ducleroir. The idea is to search and find a blogpost you think deserves a second look. I like this one because, even though I wrote it about 2 years ago, I feel the same.
"The idea is to write so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight into the heart."
-- Maya Angelou
My thoughts turned to Maya Angelou after hearing of her health scare. From what I can gather, she is still in hospital, but doing well. Hopefully that continues.
Maya has written so many wonderful things, and she is very quotable. I love the quote at the top of the post. To me, good story telling does just that. It touches the heart. I hope one day to be a strong enough writer to touch the heart of my readers. What an accomplishment that would be!
Many authors over the years have touched my heart. I vividly remember reading the Anne of Green Gables series when I was a child. Anne Shirley is a character who has stayed with me for years. I've reread her stories, and passed those books on to my daughter and my students. Anne's gutsy, optimistic, fun-loving, dramatic attitude has had so many readers fall in love with her over the years. Lucy Maud Montgomery is definitely one of those authors whose writing has arrowed straight to my heart.
How about you? Who was the first author or character who really touched your heart?
61 comments:
An excellent post to bring back, The first writer who touched my heart was Celia Ahearne writer of PS I Love You.
Yvonne.
I love Maya Angelou... especially her quote: People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
It's one of my favourite quotes!
Nice to meet you *waves*
~MISH~
http://writer-in-transit.co.za/deja-vu-blogfest/
Thomas Hardy!
I love this quote from the amazing Maya Angelou!!
Take care
x
This is hard because there are so many! But my favorite is Alexander Dumas and The Count of Monte Cristo! Love it.
Yvonne - I've heard of that book, but I've never read it. I'll have to fix that! :)
Mish - nice to meet you too! I adore that quote from Maya. She is an incredible woman! :)
Old Kitty - good choice! And Maya is such a quotable person :)
Laura - that's an awesome choice! Loved that story - although I haven't read it again in a long time! :)
That's an excellent goal, to touch a reader's heart with the stories you tell. I guess the first author who really did that for me was CS Lewis, with Till We Have Faces. I identified so much with that main character, and the book is haunting to me for that reason.
Sarah - thanks! Lewis has touched so many people over the years - great choice! :)
Anne McCaffrey's books are what compelled me to want to be an author, but the first that really touched my heart were the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. Followed closely by Adams' Watership Down.
I remember reading Little Women as a kid and loved it
I love that quote too. Maya Angelou has special memories for me. Many years ago my son had an accident while holidaying in Tenerife. I was flown out to be with him and took 'I know why the caged bird sings' with me. It was my sole companion as I waited for my son to recover. (He's fine now)
Probably Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her stories were some that stayed with me until even now. I also LOVED Anne!
Thanks so much for participating in the Blogfest!
Great post. Anne McCaffrey who died recently was one writer who has really impacted me. Love her work.
Touched my heart. Maybe not in the way you think, but it was Tolkien.
The Hobbit grabbed me and dragged me onto an adventure and showed me that the plain and ordinary can be brave and extraordinary.
Great re-post Jemi! Timeless. An author who touched my heart was Pat Conroy and THE GREAT SANTINI. I could easily relate.
Thank you for helping to make today so special! :)
The earliest one I remember wasn't a person, it was a horse. Black Beauty. I read that story over and over and it always touched me.
I remember this post! I think I commented on it when you put it up because of your love of Anne of Green Gables--one of my childhood best memories.
Glad you reposted it.
Oh. I love Maya Angelou!
I'm a new follower from the DejaVu Blogfest. Nice to meet you! :)
I love that Maya Angelou quote!
For me the Little House books were the first ones that touched my heart. :)
I love Maya Angelou's quotes. Awesome woman. Gosh, it's so hard to remember the first author that touched my heart. There are so many, but as a child, I have to say Frank Baum touched my heart with the Oz books, taking me on those awesome adventures in Oz!
That's a great quote, and I so admire Maya Angelou.
I wish I'd realised this fest was happening and joined in.
Diane - I'm completely with you on McCaffrey's books - they're pure magic!
Helen - I loved Little Women too. In fact my mom made cookies when she knew I was getting to 'that' scene!
Rosalind - wow! I'm glad he's okay. And what a wonderful power Maya's books have.
Lydia - you're very welcome! It's fun! :) I didn't read the Wilder books until I was much older, but they are amazing too!
Donna - I totally agree. I didn't discover McCaffrey until I was much older, but I still fell in love with her work!
DL - you're very welcome! I don't know if I've ever read anything by Pat Conroy - I'll have to look into that!
Linda - great choice! I loved that one too! :)
Lee - good memory! I do adore Anne - she has a very special place in my heart & in my childhood!
Margo - thank you so much! It's a great blogfest - and Maya A is amazing! :)
Coleen - Maya is amazing and so are the Ingalls Wilder books - great stories!
Lyn - oh! Great choice! The Wizard of Oz is such a fabulous story :)
Tricia - she's amazing! And it's hard to keep up with everything - especially at this time of year!
Timothy - oops! Missed you - sorry!
The Hobbit is another of my all-time favourites! I got an embossed, boxed hard cover copy way back in grade 5 or 6 that is one of my most prized possessions!
I read all the time as a kid, but the first author who grabbed me was Terry Brooks.
I second Ann Shirley. Elizabeth Bennett would probably be mine and Christine Daae. The very first author was probably Lloyd Alexander though. Great re-post!
Hi Jemi. I love Maya Angelou. I always give my Year 12 students a nudge in her direction when it's poetry time. At least one enjoys the research and poetic quotations from this powerful writer. Love her sassy ways.
Denise
Forgot to answer your question. Heidi, Johanna Spyri (wrong spelling I'm sure) was the first book that got into my soul and has never left!
Alex - I didn't stumble onto Terry Brooks stuff until I was an adult - and I loved it then too :)
Nisa - Anne is a great character! The Book of 3 has interested a lot of kids over the years! :)
Denise - that's awesome that you guide your students towards Maya - she is incredible. And Heidi - I'd forgotten all about her! Loved that story too! :)
I've never read any Maya other than quotes now and then.
The first book that really touched me was Charlotte's Web. I still recall how in 4th grade my teacher, Mrs. Kingston (her class influenced me in many ways), read the book aloud to us over a period of several days. I would be so anxious to get to school each day to hear the next part of the story. It really hit me emotionally when she got to the end of that book.
Lee
Wrote By Rote
Lee - I didn't read Charlotte's Web until I read it to my own kids. It's a wonderful story!! :)
I don't have a 'favorite' because there are too many 'loves' in my life to pick. Off the top of my head, I would name Octavia Butler's, 'Kindred' and Khaled Hossein's, 'The Kite Runner'. There's also Sue Monk Kid's, 'The Secret Life of Bees' and Kim Edwards, 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter'. Oh, I love to read. Can I name one more? Please oh please oh please? Lisa See's, 'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan'. Okay, I'll stop there. Next time, ask an easier question, please. ;}
Lost - love it!! It's next to impossible, isn't it? There are so many wonderful books out there and so many that touched me, changed me as a kid. I learned SO much from them :)
I read every fairy/folk tale my library had as a kid and then I went through all of the dinosaur books then I went into Nancy Drew. Can't say any of those particularly moved me though.
That's easy: S.E. Hinton's Pony Boy from The Outsiders when I was 13 years old.
Vicki - I went through the Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys books, but when I hit Anne & Little Women & then the Hobbit, I knew I'd hit the best! :)
Nancy - great choice!! Ponyboy & Soda & Darry have such a fabulous story to tell. When I teach grade 8s I always read that one! :)
I think it was Elionwy of the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. I loved how he wrote her.
MS - that's another great series! I haven't re-read that in years and years! I'll have to dig it out again :)
Like DL, I'll also say Pat Conroy. I read his books during my high school years. Some of them had me in tears.
Medeia - I definitely have to pick up some of Conroy's books then! I don't know why I never have... :)
I don't think any book has ever touched my heart, even though I read thousands, but I like when a film or a song touch me :) or make me cry a bit :) I've always believed in films and songs which inspire and give you strength which is why I'm having HEARTWARMING TRAILERS WEEk at my site next week to fight against morbid and dark films at least during Christmas :) Hope I will touch somebody's heart with that :)
What a beautiful quote -- her words are incredible.
So many authors touched me early on -- Tamora Pierce for fantasy, Gordon Korman for comedy, Arthur Ransome for adventure.
Dezzy - there are soooooo many movies that have 'got me' over the years too. And songs. Apparently I'm a bit of a sap! The first one I remember hitting my heart was the pied piper when the cave wall closes with one kid outside. *sob*
Amie - she really is an amazing person. The only one I've read from your list is Korman - and I LOVE his stuff! Great writer :) I'll have to check out the others!
Ok, I'm just starting out but JK Rowlings stories will never be forgotten.
Great post!
Oooh as a child Susan Cooper and Judith Kerr.
More recently Melina Marchetta and Philip Pulllman.
Lovely post Jemi :)
That's a tough question . . . but the children's series Green Knowe has been a constant favorite ever since my mom read it to me. :)
Romance - excellent choice! Harry and the gang will surely turn out to be timeless! :)
Alexa - thank you! Those are excellent choices! I've got a couple of students now who are loving the Golden Compass series! :)
Golden E - hmmm. I don't know that one - I'm going to have to check it out. Parents reading to us can be SUCH a powerful memory! :)
That is such a wonderful quote. :)
I fell in love with Beatice Potter as a child and re fell in love with her in one of my college classes.
Sharon - I love it!
Beatrice Potter wrote such wonderful tales! I found a beautiful boxed set of the stories for my daughter when she was younger. Love them!
Anne's books were definitely my gateways into being a huge reader. :o) I wanted to be her! And I was jealous that my sister was the one born with red hair. :o)
Thanks for sharing, Jemi! Merry Christmas!
argh! Such a hard question! Hmm... I guess the very very first would be LM Alcott--Little Women. Just b/c I was in elementary school, and I wrote an unassigned 12-page report on the book, I loved it so much. :D
crazy~ <3
Love this post and Love Maya Angelou's work. I think she and Beverly Clearly were the first authors who taught me I could relate to characters in books.
Jackee - that's awesome!! I never had the nerve to want to be Anne - she was SO brave!! But I desperately wanted to be her best friend :)
Leigh - that's awesome!! I loved that book too. As soon as I finished it the first time, I read it again - hoping against hope 'that' scene would change. Sadly, it remained the same... :)
Saumya - great choices! Beverly Cleary has written so many amazing kids' books! :)
It would have to be Charlotte from Charlotte's Web. Although many books had an impact on me as a child, nothing moved me like that spider.
Theresa - Awesome choice! I didn't read Charlotte until I was an adult and read it to my kids - but I love it! Great story!! :)
Peter Pan was my "go to" guy from a very young age. He still is. I haven't given up yet on going to Neverland.
I loved Anne Shirley, too! Ah, so many characters to love. I wonder if the books we read as children are more likely to stick with us through our whole lives than the books we read as adults. All my very favorite characters--from the Twits to Tumnus the fawn to Laura Ingalls-- are books I read as a child.
Great post, Jemi! Sorry I'm a little late getting around the blogfest. :(
Leslie - awesome choice! When my daughter was born, we got a gorgeous picture book of Peter Pan from friends - I've loved it ever since! :)
Amy - I haven't got near to finishing visiting everyone from the blogfest either! There's a lot of great posts! :)
I think you're right - those books that impact us as kids really do stick with us! :)
Have a Happy Christmas and Healthy 2012,
Thanks for your support during 2011. X
Glynis - you're very welcome! I hope your new year brings you lots of joy! :)
Post a Comment