The Five Books That Made Me Fall In Love With Reading: #2

Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


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The Five Books That Made Me Fall In Love With Reading: #2

THIS.BOOK.CHANGED.MY.LIFE.

Alright so that's a little dramatic, I suppose but it has a grain of truth. I am in my last year of my twenties, and I've come to realize that we are only gifted with a certain amount of vivid childhood memories. I'm speaking specifically of textural memory that swirls into your vision, and just a moment floods your senses. I was in third grade and was a student of Mrs. Wright. She was a short and plump Mexican woman who sported silver hair worn in a soft french twist, happy brown eyes and a killer wardrobe of tweed skirt suits. I absolutely loved her. Every day after recess she would read to us, over the course of the year we went through several, but Lizard Music is far and away my favorite.



This is the book I seek out in every library I've ever gone to. Something about the clear shiny plastic over the hardcover and the district smell of a library book makes me smile, and I always go in search of it. This bizarre and magical little book of a boy on his own adventuring to an island of intelligent lizards with a museum of memories, fundamentally changed how I saw things. It's excellent and a little weird, I can't wait to read it to my girls.

My memory:

It's hot and she's turned the lights off, the fans are blowing but it's not really helping. The backs of my legs are sticking to the chair and I notice I have grass on my knees. Mrs. Wright always chose a different place in the classroom to settle down to read from, she often walked around a bit before selecting a place. I hear the delightful crinkle of the plastic on the book as she finds where we left off from the previous day. As soon as she begins to read, everything else fades away and I am in the story.

The excitement that I felt at 8 years old, is the exact same feeling I get today. It's the feeling responsible for keeping me up at 3 am turning the pages of a new favorite book, and Lizard Music is the first time I remember feeling it. It was instrumental in cultivating my love of reading and is true gem of a book!









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