Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Sensory Reading Memories

1. Special Delivery by Valjean McLenighan
   I have clear memories of my dad reading this book to us (all three of my siblings and myself) night, after night, after night when he would finally try to change the story and we’d all start yelling that it wasn’t right. I’ve asked my siblings now if they remember this book and none of them have the same memory I have, it’s so interesting.
2. The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia M. Scarry
   I can still smell the scratch and sniff stickers in this book, especially the orange (which lasted the longest). In fact, I found a re-issued copy of this book a few years ago and had to buy myself a new copy.
3. Meet Samantha by Susan S. Adler
   This was one of many American Girl titles I read over and over again at bedtime – it only took me 20-30 minutes to read a book so I could finish the whole thing before falling asleep. I also saved my money up to buy a Samantha doll, so she holds a special place in my heart.
4. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
   Probably one of my favorite books of all time, I read this book repeatedly growing up and would watch the PBS movie with my mom and sister every year.
5. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
   Once I grew out of middle grade titles, I moved straight to adult fiction because my small hometown library didn’t really have a YA section. This is a book I remember reading (and loving) for it’s mix of science and fiction and went on to read most of Crichton’s work during my teen years.
6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
   My mom read aloud to us every morning before school as we got older and this was one of the books she read aloud to us in the 15 minutes before the bus came.
7. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
   I took this book on a cruise with my family and promptly fell into Brooklyn during the early 20th century – a book I wasn’t expecting to love as much as I did.
8. Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
   My mom gave this book to be in college and said that she had read it a number of times over the years and always got something new from it. And I’ve found the same thing, in fact I have’t picked it up for a little while and might read it again soon.
9. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
   I love the way Brian changed the face of children’s literature in this heavily illustrated story that begs to be told both in text and illustrations. I distinctly remember being in the audience at the Youth Media Awards at the ALA conference in Philadelphia the year it won.
10. Where Is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox
    This is a storytime favorite, no matter how many times a child has heard this book, they will gladly listen to it again and again. I loved how the kids who knew this story could read it with me and the kids who hadn’t heard it before just fell in love with it. A must-have for every family.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl.