Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?

This should NOT be a scandalous question/answer, yet for me, it is. 👀

In my youth, I dealt with diagnosed depression but undiagnosed PTSD and ADHD. I didn’t know why, but reading was not my thing. My mother raised me as best as she could, but since she had only the equivalent of an 8th-grade education, she did not pass a love for reading onto me. I thrived at any and all things related to numbers. Math was- and still is- my favorite subject and area to learn. However, as an adult, I now know that my brain could not sit still long enough to consume a book the way my educators needed me to back then. Even today, reading a physical book is difficult but I can consume an audiobook in record time!

Even though I hated reading, there were still book assignments that had to be completed in school. To be honest with you, to my recollection, I only read three books in my youth (I still suffer from memory loss due to trauma so that number may or may not be accurate). Of Mice and Men, The Diary of Anne Frank, and The Scarlet Letter were the only books that I remember reading and decades later, the characters of the book are still alive in my heart. Now, you may be asking, “How did you get through school having only read three books?” Well, for that I praise God for Spark Notes and Pink Monkey, the two websites that read the books that I did not. 😆

While I loved all three of those books, today’s prompt asks for my FAVORITE. Hmmm…

One is about a man with a disability and how he navigated life and his difference in thinking. Another is factual and historical, showing what happens when the will to live is stronger than the chains of hatred and oppression. While the last highlights what happens in a society when the voice of a woman is ignored. Now, to be fair, that’s my adult-Michelle outlook and one-sentence summaries on those books; others may feel differently…

One book taught me to see, accept, and love others who think, look, and live differently from me. Another taught me to live my life out loud and unapologetically. While the last taught me that being a woman is beautiful… even though it comes with its burdens.

In totality, those three books combine to make me the woman, educator, and advocate that I am today. Those books shaped my heart and mind at a young age and I am truly grateful for the lessons that they shared with me.

Yet the prompt asks for my FAVORITE…

…and if I had to choose, I’d say…

The Diary of Anne Frank ❤️

Resist oppression and remember that though opposition may not come for you today, if you allow it to come for others, it will eventually knock at your door.