Thank You, Ms Blyton

Enid Blyton had been my inspiration, my addiction and my obsession when young. I attributed a lot of my fantasies and my imagination, as well as my love for writing, to her. Hubby was equally fascinated by her delightful stories of enchanted forests and magical trees when young. Needless to say, Big Bee's captivation by her was all-consuming, devouring one or two of her books a day. However, she is gradually moving away to other more "mature" genres like CS Lewis, Shakespeare (the easy-reading, abridged ones, of course!) and other classic books - as well as a whole load of so-called "cool" tween reading like Diary of the Wimpy Kid, which features very high on my list of disapproved books, which probably made her even more drawn to the series!

And I am happy that Little Bee had finally followed our footsteps when she rummaged through our bookshelf last week, and dug out one old Enid Blyton book of her sister's, claiming she wanted to read it.

Thereafter, she took the book and started reading in her room silently. Unlike her sister, she wasn't that enchanted as yet, but I think her interest in reading had been activated by the many Blyton books she sees around her, as well as the many story books she brought back from school on a daily basis.

Let's hope we are cultivating yet another bookworm, for the power of our imagination and creativity can only be unleashed in our minds through reading, and definitely not through those modern electronic playthings like the iPhone, iPad or even good old TV.