This post is for Day 3 of the 2019 Slice of Life Challenge. Thanks to the Two Writing Teachers for bringing this community of writers together to share our writing in the month of March.
I'm reading a book right now that grabbed me by the hand in the first crafted words, tugged at my heart and compelled me to venture on a journey into the story.
The book is The Lost Girls by Heather Young
The story begins:
"I found this notebook in the desk yesterday. I didn't know I had any of them left, those books I bought at Framer's with their black-and-white marbled covers and their empty, lined pages waiting to be filled. When I opened it, the binding crackled in my hands and I had to sit down."
And it continues:
"The edges of the book's pages were yellow and curled, but their centers were white, and they shouted in the quiet of the parlor. Long ago, I filled these books with stories, simple things the children enjoyed, but this one demanded something else. It was as though it had lain beneath stacks of old Christmas cards and faded stationery until now, when my life has begun to wane with the millennium and my thoughts have turned more and more to the past."
The pull into the story was strong and I found I MUST read on.
What makes this pull so strong?
Is it the word selection?
Is it the author's craft?
Is it the promise of the unfolding story?
Is it the connection I find in those first few words?
Is it curiosity that makes me wonder about this character's life of writing?
Have your found books that impact you this way? What draws you in?
I wonder if students in our schools have a similar tug when reading books they have chosen to read?
What draws them in?
What keeps them there?
Can we know in the first few pages of a book that we will love the story?
