Magic of Place: a special NerdyBookClub post

If you love books, especially those written for children and young adults, then you are an honorary member of The Nerdy Book Club. Like other members of this club, you probably always have a book along to read, a title to recommend, and time to talk about works held dear. Come join me today at The Nerdy Book Club blog to celebrate the Magic of Place. Here's a bit of what I'm writing about:

As book lovers, we know about how the setting of a book can sweep you away to far-away places. Whether it’s the way that Anne Ursu pulls us into the magical winter landscape of the Minnesota woods in Breadcrumbs or the way Jennifer Holm makes us feel the dirt between our toes as we walk barefoot with the Diaper Baby Gang from Turtle in Paradise -- setting is a critical part of the books we love. But there’s another magical part of setting - and that’s the magic of the place where we read and fall in love with books.

I find a visceral attachment to the place I’ve read my favorite books. Whenever I think about reading Rebecca Stead’s amazing When You Reach Me, I think about the dark summer night I spent on the couch in our mountain cabin - all alone in the wee hours of the night, getting to the ending and wanting to start right back over again.

We bring books wherever we travel. My children laugh and tell stories about how their suitcases are so heavy because, “Mom insists on bringing 15 books on our summer vacation.” But just look at the fun I had with my youngest daughter reading Kate Messner's Marty McGuire on our summer hike in the Sierra Mountains!

Head on over to the Nerdy Book Club today to read more of my thoughts on the Magic of Place, and leave a comment about your own special book reading spot.

I  want give special thanks to both Laurel Snyder and John Schumacher (a.k.a. Mr. Schu) for inspiring this post. They both enliven and deepen my reading experiences every day.