Sure, I read all of the Little House on the Prairie books and Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, Little Women, Frog and Toad Are Friends (what?!)...they were all fantastic. However, they were just wonderful, creative stories that I enjoyed reading. They didn't spur me to pick up pen and paper and begin crafting myself.
Until I read The Parent Trap. This book came out in 1968 (I know...a lifetime ago) by Vic Crume when following the 1961 Disney movie starring the ever-charming Hayley Mills (no...not Lindsey Lohan's version) playing the duel roles of Sharon and Susan, twins separated after birth when their parents divorced and went their separate ways.
Now, it wasn't particularly the plot of the book that I identified with -- seeing how I don't have a twin sister I was separated from or divorced parents (mine just celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary.) Rather, it was the whole atmosphere and setting and...what if factor that the story created. And, the fact that these two thirteen year old girls could swap lives and manage to bring their parents back together.
When I was younger, I read this book to death, cover to cover, several times over. The thing was so tattered and torn, it looked like it had been through a shredder. At some point, I re-wrote the story in screenplay form in a notebook. I would have my stuffed animals act it out as a "play" with various set of animal twins playing the roles of Susan and Sharon. Sometimes, I'd even switch up the plot a little bit, ad-libbing here and there. I couldn't get enough of it, somehow wanting the story to be part of me, to have created it.
It wasn't novel-writing, at that point, but it was writing. I mean, I was like nine years old. But, it was a seed that was planted and set to grow and develop...until one day I'd be lucky enough to sell one of my stories.
So the rest of the Buzz Girls will weigh in this week on the books that influenced them. We'd love to hear from you and find out what books have meant the most to you through your life.
Marley = )
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7 comments:
Marley, if I had known THE PARENT TRAP was a book as well as a movie, I would have dog-earred it, too! What a compelling story, which such sympathetic characters!
Like you, I'm looking forward to hearing from the other Buzz Girls about teen books that affected them, as well as from our blog friends!
Great choice, Marley! I haven't read the book but I've seen both movies and they are adorable. I've always loved the "switch" theme!
I'm with Tina, I would have loved to have had the parent trap as a book. As it was, I rented that movie at least once a week as a kid :)
whatz wrong w/the lindsey lohan verzun? it rocks. she's had a troubled life.
I never saw the Lindsey Lohan version or the first version. Where have I been?
~Simone
I didn't know there was a book, either. OMG I love that movie. I loved it so much that I watched Parent Trap 2 (where they made amazing cookies) and 3 (where there were triplets and Barry Bostwick in Hawaii) and Parent Trap: Hawaiian Honeymoon (again with triplets and Barry Bostwick, but this time in Hawaii). I think it's because I'm an only child and I was hoping that secretly I had a twin sister out there somewhere. =)
Hugs,
TLC
Add me to the I-didn't-know-it-was-a-book club, Marley! It's such a fun movie, though!
Hugs,
H
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