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I tried my very hardest to find the exact editions that I read at the time and some of my favorites! That was also really fun to look for and made this so much more fun!

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Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton (2003 by Workman Publishing ) 

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When my husband and I started our family, I knew that I wanted books to be a part of their lives as much as it was in mine. Till this day we have tons of books in our home. When my oldest was around 2, we noticed that he wasn't talking like he should. This lead us down a journey of discovering what it was to have a child on the spectrum. It was hard and heartbreaking but through time and a lot of help our son has made tremendous progress. He was delayed in speech, so hearing him say any words were big moments in our home. Snuggle Puppy was the first time I heard him repeat a word from a book, and to this day I cry when I think of this moment. He said the word "Puppy". Despite this book being old and torn from use, it will forever remain a touchstone book. A keepsake. A precious memory.

The book is short and sweet and most importantly a love song. The rhyming aspect made it easy for my children to memorize. When I was exhausted at night but they still begged for a book, this is the one I would read. I have been reading this book to my children for more than 10 years. The lyrics are a part of family. We often say it to each other when we want to say I love you ,  " I love what you are, I love what you do, Snuggle Puppy of mine, I LOVE YOU"

Here is the book and the song for the book, and I hope you get some joy from it as much as my family does!

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Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins ( 2008 by Scholastic)

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I married young and had my children young. When we first had our son, I quickly realized that I wanted to stay home and raise him and our other children that will later come. This was a new transition for me. When I became a SAHM, it took a long time for me to get a handle of my new life stage. It was hard and most of the time lonely. I had taken a break from reading for pure enjoyment in college, and it was during this new life stage where I remembered how much joy reading gave me. One day, when my son was down for a nap, I picked up this book and BAM! Hello reading love affair! This book was the spark of joy that I needed in my life and it was the series that lead me to other fantastic and memorable reads from that moment on. It also sparked my love for Dystopian novels and once again I was able to find a community of people, that I desperately needed at the time.

I love when movies are made from books that are spot on and only add to the greatness of the book series. The Hunger Games movies were absolutely a perfect addition to the series.
The impact that this book had on me and countless others, is astounding!

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 Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend (2002 by Zondervan) (first published January 1st 1992

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This book was life changing. If you've noticed, I had a lot of responsibilities placed on me from a young age. It is very much a cultural thing to place a lot of home and family responsibilities on women in Latino culture. I was resentful but the furthest I pushed was by leaving and staying at my aunt's house for days at a time. My aunt was light in my life, she spoiled me in ways that I didn't get at home. She once again handed me this book not knowing how life changing it would be. I learned how to say no, and not to feel guilty about it. I learned that it was ok to want and desire things out of my life that didn't look like what my parents wanted. I learned that if I truly loved my parents and siblings, that I would set boundaries for both our sakes. These concepts took time, and it first it was so hard- but gradually our lives started to change, our dynamics changed and soon we started seeing the fruits of these boundaries that I had placed. I learned this concepts when I was relatively young (17yrs old) but because of it, I was able to help others as well and learning this concepts help shape me into the person I am today. This book allowed me for the first time to have control over my life and what it felt like to be myself.

Here is small snippet of Dr. Henry Cloud explaining what it looks like.

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Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (2006 by Little, Brown and Company)

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After Harry Potter, came Twilight. Twilight was a big moment for me because it was the first series that I fell so hard for, that I drove a car by myself for the first time to get my hands on a book.  It is absolutely fitting, that the first place I ever drove to by myself was a Barnes and Noble. I live in a city, you don't need a car, you have public transportation for everything. I had just finished reading Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn had just been released, and I NEEDED the fourth book. The bus number I needed, was not going to pass anytime soon, it was winter time and my mom was home, which meant the car was home. The stars were aligned. My mom called me crazy, but she gave me money and handed me the keys.  Was I absolutely terrified and shaking the whole time? Yes. But getting my hands on this 4th book was worth it.

Twilight was my segway into paranormal books! This book series started a grand love affair for vampires for many, but it led me into the genre of Urban Fantasy, which I adore! Werewolves, vampires and shapeshifters, oh my!
I love reading the impact behind these books now, and knowing that I wasn't the only one enamored by them.

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Harry Potter by J.K Rowling (2003 by Scholastic) 

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Harry Potter. How is it even possible to not have Harry Potter as a touchstone. This series was EVERYTHING. I didnt start it right when they came out. When I finally picked it up, Goblet of Fire was already out and a few friends had already read them. When I say, I didn't leave my room for days... I mean I didn't leave my room for days! Goblet of Fire is a pretty dense book, and I finished it in 2 days. ( I'm pretty sure, I missed some homework) The magic! The absolute grandness of it! The way Harry, Ron and Hermione grew from babies to older teens! Later, the darkness and heaviness of it all. I loved that for the first time, I was able to gush and relate to other people about a book and characters! I never was able to! Never did I have a book community that felt the same way I did, and I had it for the first time with Harry Potter. I loved that others loved it, I loved that others were in my house ( Ravenclaw all the way!) and we could all have something to talk about during lunch time. The HP community was a connection that I loved having in high school.

One of my favorite things to do is read about how HP changed their lives, I find it so meaningful and love reading about their joys with HP. Here is a wonderful article, that shows the magic that Harry created for many!

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The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck (1995 by Penguin Books) (first published 1942)

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It was high school English class, we had just finished reading The Pearl by John Steinbeck. I wasn't impressed. But my English teacher had this book on his shelf, and one day I decided to pick it up. I could not stop reading it. It was gritty and dark, I loved the dialogue between the soldiers.   The backdrop was war and at that time I was obsessed with Saving Private Ryan and WW2, and this book just hit all the right spots for me. No one I knew had read it, no one wanted to read it and so when I was done, I only had my teacher to gush to. He was so excited for me, he was much older in age and I could tell that he genuinely was excited that I enjoyed a Steinbeck book. He introduced me to Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and he was always willing to listen to me when I needed someone to talk to.  This book and this teacher opened the way for some good American Classics that I still love to this day.

I always loved reading a book for class and then watching a movie when were done! It was a method that helped the book "stick" more.  I love anything old, and so naturally I also really loved the movie and I also really loved reading about the sentiment behind Steinbeck actually writing the novel in the first place and the impact it had during the time.

This is the edition that I read in High school, and my brother recently gifted me the same edition this past christmas, my heart nearly exploded of happiness!

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Dream man by Linda Howard (1995 by Pocket Books) 

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My parents were both working parents, and most of the time I was left in charge of the house until my mom came home. It was a lot of responsibility and as soon as my mom came home from work I would go straight into my room and wouldn't really come out ( I didn't know it then, but it was my introvertedness coming out). One day my parents went to a thrift store and when they came home, my mom handed me this book and some others ones she picked out for me. I felt so loved by this gesture. I felt seen by her.  She had no idea this was a Romance novel or what that entailed, and I didn't either, but this was my first taste for Romance novels and I couldn't get enough! Soon after this, I went to my library and asked for ANY books like this one, and the beautiful librarian, God bless her soul, smiled and lead me straight to the Romance section she knew like the back of her hand. I have been reading Romance ever since!
Here is a website that reviews Romance novels, and their Dream Man post. I could definitely relate to their sentiments about this book.

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Persuasion by Jane Austen 2007 by Vintage (first published December 1817)

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Ladies and Gentlemen,
May I introduce to you, the Ultimate, The Perfect, The most precious love story you could ever read- Persuasion by Jane Austen. After reading Pride and Prejudice, I found this book, and my life was never the same. I knew that this book, these characters, this love story was going to be the standard in which I held all other love stories to. I felt like I was on cloud 9 for weeks after reading this book. I saw myself in Anne, in her meek character, her strong but quiet soul, forever loving and giving to her family who always needed her but never saw her. It was the first time I literally said " This is me. " and here came this man, who saw her for who she was,  knew her deeply and declared his absolute devotion to her, and man! I still swoon when I think of Wentworth! I wanted a love like Anne and Wentworth and despite being young ( 13yrs old) I had officially had a standard for love.
There is no format of this book that I don't love. But I actually really do enjoy recommending the audiobook more often than I do the actual book, since its sometimes easier to listen to these types of books than reading them and its always free.

I have many copies of Persuasion, but again this edition is my favorite. I think it might be the vibrant red dress.

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Emma by Jane Austen 2007 by Vintage (first published December 23rd 1815)

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Jane Austen. My favorite by far of any author. Emma was the first book I read of hers, once again my aunt realized that I enjoyed reading and she handed this to me, not knowing how absolutely life changing it would be. I loved the language, the atmosphere, the characters, the classic British humor. I then of course watched the movies, and my goodness! I was done! I immediately begged for the other books and my aunt so graciously gave me Pride and Prejudice.
This is the book I recommend to start with when people are interested in starting their Jane Austen journey. It is much more lighthearted and has many funnier moments. It is a great segway into learning the language and the time period. Many people don't realize that the 90's hit movie Clueless is actually a retelling of Emma! and so I always recommend watching Clueless right when they're done reading! To solidify the concept.

This is also my favorite edition of Emma, which I have on my personal shelf!

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Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (1993 by Black Swan) 

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Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel : Movie trailer

I have always considered myself a lucky girl. I had a wonderful relationship with my aunt, who spoiled me. She was also a college graduate (the first in her family) and was a Spanish highschool teacher. She gave me this book one day because she noticed how much I loved watching Mexican novelas. I instantly fell in love. It was the first time I was introduced to magic realism and I fell hard! I loved Tita and the food that she cooked and how familiar it was to me. I felt so seen by Tita and her mother's relationship, and I loved knowing that it wasn't just my relationship with my mother that was rocky. There was something so special in seeing and being able to read words in English and Spanish in the same sentence. My favorite part was when Tita was making soup and she way crying, and some of her tears fell into the soup, when it came time to eat the soup, everyone started to cry. This was something that was so fantastical and yet so pure, I couldn't help but love it. The movie is equally as magical as the book, and a great way to introduce people to Magic Realism if they are not readers.

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Are You My Mother? by P.D Eastman (1962 by Random House) 

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I loved this book so much. I loved the color of the book, I loved the bird and the dog, I loved how floppy the dogs cheeks look and how silly that little skinny bird was. I loved the white background and the standout colors like the yellow beak. I loved how the bird was determined to find his mother. This is also the book that I have a memory of reading to my brothers, and being extremely proud that I could do it on my own. I am the only girl of my family, being from a Latino home, means that it was my job to take care of the boys in my home. I have always been their caretaker, always the one comforting, making sure they're ok. When I think about my reading journey, this book is the one that I remember vividly reading to my little brother cuddled up in bed.

My kids loved this version because the pictures moved and the video would zoom in and out. I love that a book that I read and loved can be reimagined and used in different ways to spark an interest for new readers

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Go, Dog. Go! by P.D Eastman (1961 by Random House )

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When my parents first came to America in the 80's, they had me and my brother right away. My mother was fortunate enough to find work at a local church preschool, and they were gracious enough to let her bring me and my brother along. It was there that she was mentored by a beautiful soul, who instilled in my mother the importance of books in our lives. My mother may have not known English very well and she couldn't always read the books to us, but she always gave us books. We had all the Dr. Seuss books and others, but P.D Eastman was by far my favorite.  Go, Dog. Go! was the first book that I truly loved. I read it over and over again. I browsed the pictures and knew it every single page by heart. I loved the craziness of it, the colors of it, the different characters. It makes for a fantastic Beginners book.

Finding Youtube read alouds have been a game changer for both my family but also for teachers during the pandemic. My kids love to watch Read alouds, and they loved this one as well!