Today I have the wonderful opportunity of having Kim Culbertson, author of Songs for a Teenage Nomad stopping by to chat about her book and her favorite childhood books. I’m excited to hear more about Kim’s influences, so without further hesitation on my part…

I loved to be read to as a child. Books were magical, enchanting worlds with sweeping pictures and jumbled letters that I knew made up the story spilling from my parent’s lips when they read to me. When I got to school, though, I was handed slim, often sparsely illustrated “readers” and was told that I was now “learning to read.” I remember sitting in my first grade class, staring out the window at a papery blue sky, one of those slim readers in front of me on the desk, and feeling the pull to read slip away from me. I could read in a practical, mechanical way– but I didn’t feel engaged with what I was reading.

When I was seven, my family moved and so I ended up at a new school with a new teacher. This teacher spoke to us in huge, lovely words about books, about stories, and that pull to read began bubbling in my belly again. My teacher had racks and racks of books in her room and we were given a great deal of time to flip through them and find books we felt drawn to. She told us that we might not like every book we came across but that we would find a book to “connect” to. Permission to not like a book! It was scandalous and liberating! One day, I slipped the first Nancy Drew book from the rack. The rest is a bit blurry but I remember reading Nancy Drew every spare moment I could find. I plunged into her world, her adventures. Not only could I read, I couldn’t wait to read!

I never looked back.

As an adult, and now as a high school teacher of more than twelve years, I remember what my second grade teacher said all those years ago: you will find a book you connect to. Awhile back, I took a writing workshop from the author Ethan Canin and he put it in more literary terms. He suggested that reading is two sensibilities connecting: the author’s and the reader’s. This theory has become the defining drive for my own reading and writing. In fact, it has become the basis for my monthly newsletter Point of View. Simply put, we connect to some books more than others because we have such an individualized point of view, such specific sensibilities. This theory has helped me stop categorizing books into “bad books” and “good books.” What I’m finding is that there are books I connect to and books I don’t. Whether they are “good” or “not good” really isn’t the point.

As a child, I was shaped by everything I read – Anne of Green Gables, A Wrinkle in Time, pretty much everything Roald Dahl, Beverly Cleary, and Judy Blume wrote – the list is endless. I have a history of loving strong, complicated female characters – Anne, Meg, Matilda, Ramona, Margaret. I’m sure these girls paved the road that lead me to Calle, the main character in my own first novel, Songs for a Teenage Nomad. Yet I’ve also learned to read and study books that I might not have felt compelled to read – certain titles from high school (like Ethan Frome!) or college or a book my book club is reading that I might not have picked up on my own. Even if they don’t engage me in the way that A Catcher in the Rye or a Richard Russo novel does, I found they each have had something to teach me about seeing the world in a larger way. Which is, for me, the whole point of reading in the first place.

“The power of a teacher and the books they love is so evident in Kim’s remarks. Their love of reading can truly impact us for the rest of our lives. I know my 5th grade teacher did that for me. His reading of Socks by Beverly Cleary has made it my absolute favorite childhood book and one that I can’t wait to share with my own children.

“I’m also absolutely in love with with all of her list of favorites. Who didn’t fall in love with Anne and Gilbert? And then to see how all those influences affected her character Calle, it just makes an incredible book that much more incredible.

“Thank you so much, Kim, for stopping by today! I’m so excited to read more of your writing and hope everyone will pick up your novel, Songs for a Teenage Nomad.”

Kim Culbertson

My Review of Songs for a Teenage Nomad

Giveaway!

As I mentioned with my review of Songs for a Teenage Nomad thanks to the publisher, Sourcebooks, I have one copy of the book to giveaway to my readers!

Details: One winner will be chosen at random after the contest closes. You MUST fill out the form below, comments will not count as entries. Only one entry per household. Giveaway is open to US/Canadian Residents only. The giveaway will run from September 21, 2010 until October 08, 2010 midnight EST.

Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our affiliate relationship with IndieBound.

Thank you to all who entered! This giveaway is now closed, please check back often for more opportunities to win!