Her historical fiction is fantastic, but Speak was the first book of hers I read, and it's about a girl who was raped. It's ... there are no words for how good it is. Absolutely a must-read.

Interesting. She wants me to pair up books, so that might make a good partner for 13 Reasons Why.

All that said, I love those books. (Possibly because my embarrassing ignorance allows me to overlook the faily parts.) I recently re-read them, and I have to learn to not read to the end of book 3.

Hey, I am Teppy! I re-read the first book fairly often, but book 3 kinda makes me twitch.

I taught Speak, and it is fabulous.

My grandmother was an elementary school teacher (2nd grade), and lived across the street from us. She taught me to read using Fun with Dick and Jane from her classroom when I was 4. The coolest thing was playing "school" at her house had real books and stuff like that. Also? Helping set up her classroom at the end of summer was very fun. Not so fun? Her red-lining my letters home when I was in college oy!

My first books were The Pokey Little Puppy and The Enchanted Egg. I loved those books. My poor mom had to read them over and over and over to me. I still have them along with my World of Pooh, Misty and Stormy books.

All that said, I love those books. (Possibly because my embarrassing ignorance allows me to overlook the faily parts.) I recently re-read them, and I have to learn to not read to the end of book 3.

Hey, I am Teppy! I re-read the first book fairly often, but book 3 kinda makes me twitch.

Book 3 doesn't make me twitch; the end makes me cry like a baby. Every. Time.

I have no idea what the first book I read was. I started reading at age 3(and haven't stopped since :) ). Apparently I taught myself.

My mother has my favorite children's book still-- Wise Dog [link]

I don't think I learned to read with picture books, as my mom started me with The Bobbsey Twins and Boxcar Children at about 3, and I learned to read Boxcar Children. At least according to mom I have no recollection of learning to read.

The family lore is that my brother taught me to read on Winnie the Pooh (because he was tired of being asked to read to me). I don't actually remember, though.

Eta: I do remember my sister learning her letters while my mom read the Little House books to us so sis learned "W" first because it started so many chapters (the editions we read had a big flowery script letter beginning each chapter)

I bought the 1st and 3rd Tripod books not too long ago (within the last 3 years, probably?) because my DH still had the 2nd from when he'd read them as a kid and I was unable to start the series in the middle. Of course, I read the 1st one and realized that the second one is actually packed in a box out in the shed. Oops.

Tawny Scrawny Lion, and Mr. Bear Squash You all Flat were the two earliest I remember.

A book I loved and read many times when I was in elementary school, which I read to my kids and they loved it well enough to read it again on their own was No Children, No Pets. I read it to A recently, and it stands up really well. He loved it, too.

I remember Go, Dog. Go! and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish from when I was five. Other Dr. Seuss books when I was six, and the Curious George books when I was seven.

Curious George Rides a Bike is what got me started in origami.

I was reading on my own at five, but I remember being mostly interested in books for the pictures. We had the Life Nature Library series, and I remember reading the captions under the pictures, but I rarely had the patience to read the articles that went with them.

Then when I was eight my Dad started reading The Hobbit to me as a bed-time story, a chapter or so a night. By the time the group encountered the spiders in Mirkwood I was frustrated by the slow pace, so I picked up the book and finished it myself. I think it helped that the book had some nice maps to aid my imagination.

That summer I got The Fellowship of the Ring as a birthday present. The summer I turned nine I got The Two Towers. And the summer I turned ten The Return of the King was my travel reading when we left for Pakistan.