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Ten-Word Tuesday. Now With 30% More Giveaways!

day-at-the-farm

You are looking at a children’s book that Bossy purchased for her daughter before her daughter could read. At the time Bossy and her husband and son were living outside of Washington D.C. in a little neighborhood that wasn’t quite the city and it wasn’t quite the country and Bossy wanted one or the other and sorry but Bossy hasn’t eaten anything but pulp in thirty-six hours.

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And so Bossy bought this book for her daughter because it was all about the farm life Bossy coveted, and she was hoping the happy images would help shape her daughter’s entire childhood.

sheep-dogs-horse-childrens-book

This book had messages of unity and simplicity and cooperation, and featured English cottages and old barns and farm fences.

cow-farm-book

Except shortly after Bossy bought this book, they bought the farm, where bought the farm equals mortgaging a carriage house on three acres in the middle of the Virginia Piedmont with land so beautiful you could film a car commercial.

And like the book, Bossy’s farm had animals that communed together in great heaps — for instance donkeys and chickens and a Basset Hound named Hal — but Bossy’s farm also had other things not contained in her daughter’s farm book, such as snakes and angry neighbors and approximately three million spiders the size of your fist.

Bossy’s dehydrated point is: the farm book fell out of favor with Bossy, who began to lie around her Virginia farm and dream of a day she could move back to the suburbs. And Bossy’s daughter had waning interest in the farm book too, because she had fallen in love with a different book — a book with no bucolic illustrations.

It was called My Bye-Bye Bottle Book, and it went a little something like this:

drink-from-bottles

until-the-other

acid-washed-overalls

This 12-Page book of sippy-cup propaganda was originally printed in 1989 but Bossy purchased it at a yard sale. Unlike the farm book, Bossy wasn’t hoping the images contained within would shape her daughter’s childhood because. Ew.

bye-bye-bottle book

There’s no accounting for taste. Bossy is certain her own parents surrounded her with many wonderful books intended to shape her own childhood, but the story that really captured Bossy’s imagination was found inside this Dr. Seuss anthology:

sneetches-dr-seuss

Contained within this book is a little story called What Was I Scared Of? about a pair of pale green pants with nobody inside them:

pale-green-pants-with-nobody-inside-them

You see, there was this yellow fuzzy guy who wasn’t afraid of anything, except one night in the woods he bumped into this pair of pale green pants with nobody inside them, and that scared him to bits because the pants could stand and walk and run and looked as unwashed as Bossy’s sweatpants.

And the yellow fuzzy guy kept bumping into these pants over and over again and being afraid until he finally realized the pants were afraid too!

And the moral of the story is:

pale-green-pants-with-nobody-inside-em2

Which is what today’s Ten-Word Challenge is all about. In honor of children’s stories and how they shape who we become — even if that shape is currently a blob of digestive enzymes boring through the gastrointestinal tract — SharedBook would like to give one lucky Bossy reader a personalized children’s book of their choosing.

SharedBook customizes classic books with your child’s photo and a special message — and SharedBook’s wide selection can be searched by title, age-appropriateness, or author.

Simply leave a comment below as follows: in exactly ten words, can you tell Bossy about a book that shaped your childhood, for better or worse?

Good luck! Bossy will announce her winner tomorrow morning. Assuming someone can prop her up next to the computer.

And don’t forget to check back later today for the bookiest shapes on the webbynet.

Contest closed!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  53. 1920’s series: “My Book House.” Still prefer that illustration style.

    (Even though Craftsman-type illustrations were ALL orange and teal.)

  59. Laura Ingalls Wilder books…Little House on the Prairie etc. and the Nancy Drew Series…

    I don’t remember any from when I was really young. My boys love Margaret Wise Brown’s The Big Red Barn…Good Night Moon etc.

  64. I remember learning to read when I was 4…The old Dick and Jane and Sally books..I can’t remember the dogs name but they had a cat named Puff I think.

    Run Jane Run!

  76. I’ll reply again with a real 10-word reply, but I have to tell you that we got “What Was I Scared Of?” from the library for my daughter. She was afraid of the dark at the ripe old age of 2 and a half. She LOVES it, and so do I.

  79. Not for the contest…I just had to say that I was shocked to see the farm book here. My aunt gave my son that book several years ago when we were home visiting. Now I’m going to have to go find it!

  82. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. It’s for older kids, but I absolutely loved this book, and it’s on my Amazon wishlist so I’ll remember to buy it for my own kids.

  86. My favorite kids book was “The Monster at the End of This Book Starring Furry, Lovable, Old Grover.” I bought it for my son while he was still a baby and we’ve read it hundreds of times, and it’s still my favorite. Incidentally, i had a personalized kids’ book given to me by my grandparents as a child, and I loved it! I’m glad someone is still making those.

  87. (Former) little Catholic girl–looooooved “All-of-a-Kind Family” series.

    (NOT FOR CONTEST–NO KIDS TO GIVE BOOK TO.)

  96. All Babar books. Babar is still my nickname with family!

    Where did you live in VA Piedmont? That’s my hometown, and I raise a lot of money there now!

  99. Peter Ponsil and His Tonsil: they lied about ice cream.

    and

    I love, love, love room service. And Eloise. Charge it, please.

  103. The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear.

    Who cares that I first read it when I was 26? (and I can’t believe the title went over my 10-word limit. that is *so* unfair)

    *smooches*

  105. Doesn’t anybody appreciate the fact that the tree in “The Giving Tree” is a female that DESTROYS herself for a boy/man? ARGH!!!

    Anyway – gonna have to go with The Secret Garden. Crabby little bitch finds joy and friends in unexpected places. Story of my life!

  108. Fun With Dick and Jane

    Now, before anyone thinks I’m totally lame – I’ve been a voracious reader my entire life. I used to “read” books to my mom when I was 2. FWDAJ was my first official “reader” in school. The very first book I could actually READ for real. I don’t remember the plot, or much at all – (except they ran a lot) – but because of this book I can read, and that has changed my life forever!

  110. (not quite a book, but…)

    Highlight’s goofus and gallant helped me survive my dentist visits!

  119. The GOOPS and How Not to be one”
    The goops they lick their fingers, the Goops they lick their knives, the Goops are so “some thing” they lead disgusting lives.
    hehe

  134. Charlotte’s Web broke my heart and taught me about love.

    Not a part of my answer but…
    The other Lisa: The Giving Tree bugged me to no end as a little girl. Now I know why. That boy so ungrateful!

  137. “I said and said and said those words; I said them but I lied them”

    (ok, that was over 10, but I adore that story and the whole collection. The whole book/collection is about tolerance, compromise, racism… Sneetches: it’s not about what we look like or have. Daves: diversity is important b/c if we were all the same what a mess! Zax: compromise or think creatively (why couldn’t one of them lay down and let the other walk around him?) or the rest of the world will pass you by. And Pants: take the time to get to know before judging.

  145. I don’t remember there being much reading as a young child. I do remember teaching myself to read using the record player “turn the page when you hear the ding” books from the library. But now, we reach each kid their own bedtime story almost every night, and I’d say that “Lamont the Lonely Monster” is a special favorite.

  148. The Borrowers made me imagine that I was not alone.
    I am an only child and my imagination was one of my best friends growing up.

  159. Added – just scrolling through everyone’s comments is a wonderful tour of remembered books!! thanks, Bossy, for inspiring us to comment. And thanks, everyone else, for reminding me of all these wonderful books! (Sneetches….Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler….Borrowers…Boxcar Children…Nancy Drew….Laura Ingalls Wilder…..)

  162. #148 Susan:
    I also loved The Borrowers. I also was/am an only child. I would made things for the Borrowers just like they did, such as rubbing a candle on canvas to make a waterproof bag (not very successful). AND my first name is Susan!

    But for my ten words:
    Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy. Cry. Sigh. I wished for sisters.

  169. Childcraft books. Worldbook Encyclopedia’s storybook versions. The illustrations!! The stories!!

  173. I got hooked on silly poetry really early in life .. Shel Silverstein and Ogden Nash. The best.

    Who wouldn’t giggle at ‘If called by panther, don’t anther?’