The first book I read that made a huge impression on me was Lois Lenski's Strawberry Girl. I remember the cover, the pictures, not so much the story at this time, but back when I found this book in the school library and read it, it was a book I could relate to. My family weren't migrant workers, but we lived on a farm and the whole family- my paternal grandparents who lived with us, my parents, my 2 brothers, and I all worked in the garden. It was large to grow all the vegetables we needed for canning to keep us fed all year. We had 8-10 rows 30 feet long of strawberries. We all had to pick them. And I had to help take the stems off and cut them to either eat or freeze to use later. Strawberry Girl was a book about someone who worked in a garden and lived rural. Most of the stories I read before that one were about cartoon characters or people who lived in towns and cities. It sparked a chord with me because I knew a little about the life the book talked about.
The other books, big surprise, that I loved were Walter Farley's Stallion books and Marguerite Henry's books about horses and Brighty of the Grand Canyon. We never had a burro when I was growing up but as an adult I've had 2. They are just as fun and personable as I remember Brighty being.
Walter Farley's books took me to Arabia. A country I knew little about. But I went there because of my love of horses.
I read all of Marguerite Henry's books. They too taught me things I didn't know. Like the island of Chincoteague off the Carolinas. Her Medicine Hat stallion book had me falling in love with paint horses.
And we can't forget Nancy Drew! One summer my mom bought the whole set of Nancy Drew books for me to read and a set of Hardy Boys for my older brother. I read both sets and I think my brother might have read one of the Hardy Boys books. LOL
In Jr. High and High School I read the fattest books I could find at the library because they would last me longer. I read Gone With the Wind, anything by Phyllis Whitney and Mary Stewart.
Remembering the books that brought me such joy is one of the reason I love writing books. I hope that my books bring joy to those who read them. And if not joy at least an new understanding of something they hadn't knows before.
Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 44 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.
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