Mrs. Schmitz as a kid... and her favorite books

Here I am in first or second grade... I don't know which because I wore the same shirt for both years' school pictures...

At this age I loved reading the Sweet Pickles books.  My family had the whole set and I just loved reading them myself and reading them to my younger brother and sister too.  These books aren't published anymore and I recently asked my parents if they still had them. My dad did some digging and found them!  I'm looking forward to reading them with my 4 year old niece someday soon!  Although we have to be at my parents house because my dad won't give them up 😁.

This is me in 3rd grade... I know that because of the totally awesome perm I got (sarcasm there..) and because in this family photo I had to have my right arm behind my brother (I cropped my siblings out, but you can see his really cool brown felt suit coat) because it was in a cast.  This was the 2nd broken arm I had in 3rd grade... it was a rough year... I also had stitches in my head from falling in an infamous game of hide and seek when I tripped while running to base. 

At this age, my favorite book was A Wrinkle in Time. My Aunt Judy and Uncle Mike who live in New Zealand had come to visit and got me that book for Christmas.  I read it over and over and treasured it because it was a gift from my aunt and uncle who I didn't get to see much of, but always loved spending time with them and so the book was extra special because of that.  Plus it is such an amazing story that really held my attention and imagination!

This is me in 6th grade when we went to Science Camp for a week in Santa Cruz, CA.  I grew up in California.  

At this time in my life I was really into the Lloyd Alexander's fantasy series The Chronicles of Prydain. I read these books over and over and always went to it's section in the library.

This is me in high school... (yes I played basketball). 

My English teacher in high school, who I had as a freshman and junior, was my favorite teacher and is why I became an English teacher myself (before I became a librarian).  She introduced me to Willa Cather and the book My Antonia and it is one of my all time favorite books to this day.  I taught it to my high school students, who didn't always love it like I did... but I stick by it!