Emma Mactaggart
Hello! I’m smiling as I write, reaching out to you through these words, excited about sharing as much as I possibly can about books! I was thinking of how I would introduce myself and started with conventional ‘I’m a mother of three, award-winning author, publisher…’ effectively dipping into my short biography, and whilst I am immeasurably proud of each of those three descriptors, it struck me that I should introduce myself to you via my top-ten-all-time-favourite books.
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Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
It is possible to fall in love with a book by its cover alone, and I was tantalised by the illustration style, the hints of the journey and the unseemliness of a very dark monster. It is a story about a little boy who does show is inner-monster, and his mother’s unconditional love. I wanted to be Max as a child, and Max’s mother once I had children!
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The 7 Plots and Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker
Having grown up with Enid Blyton and Dr Seuss, my delight with this this non-fiction started with the authors name! To then be transported through the literary ages in a quest to understand how and why we tell stories, to then have the message of the universal plots resonate so substantially with me to inform my future teaching means this book is never far from my side.
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Emma by Jane Austin
It is incredibly important to see ourselves in the books. It is very difficult to be what we cannot see! Okay, so I am not identifying as a young middle class English woman in the 18 hundreds… but I distinctly remember getting goosebumps at the mere sight of my name in print.
‘You must be the best judge of your own happiness’. (Jane Austin ‘Emma’)
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum
This was the first new book I every received and it was a gift from someone who wasn’t a member of my family! The idea of being transported to another land so foreign to my own, and to have three friends as the ultimate support team was incredible. These thoughts were not only to belong to me. In January 1901, George M. Hill Company completed printing the first edition, a total of 10,000 copies, which quickly sold out. It had sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956.
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Richard Flanagan’s ‘The Living See of Waking Dreams’
This list hasn’t been fixed for years and years, but rather evolves and some titles get bumped for new loves. This book is one of them and it is the latest book I’ve read. I see myself in all of the characters, am entranced by the mesmerising analogies, and felt as though Richard was writing just for me and to explain my feelings about a disappearing environment.
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The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.
It was the first book I can remember with the characters occupying very distinct and diametrically opposed characters, and I loved the exploration of character and the concept of ‘second-handers’. Given I read it as a teenager, it genuinely informed much of my personal development and belief system. The role of altruism in a community, popular opinion, personal agendas – I could see them all in action.
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The entire Harry Potter series by JK Rowlings
Rowlings weaves all the plot devices into one story and I believe this is the key to its universal appeal, which translates to 50million copies sold, as well as its longevity. It is the only series where the movies enhanced the reading process as the magic was bought to life. It also is a ‘hero’s journey’ as a writer for Rowling as she dealt with many rejections yet believed in her work.
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One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This epic story spans seven generations, is interminably complicated magical realism and tested my every pore as a reader! The language is written as music and flows through the soul. It is a book I can go back to time and time again, and it resets my thinking about literature.
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The Memory Cody by Lynn Kelly
Kelly is like the ultimate right-brained explorer! She saw the means to unlocking the key to the secrets of Stonehenge after exploring Australian Indigenous song lines. This non-fiction exploration of people’s stories, how they memorise them and how important stories were before the written word.
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Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Dr Betty Edwards
This step-by-step instructional hand-holding guide to learning how to draw unlocked much of my exploration about teaching writing to children that I share in ‘Child Write: Creating a Children’s Book is Child’s Play’. The potential personal growth that comes from learning a universal skill and the increase in self-efficacy are the key to all I do!
- I Can Do Anything – written and illustrated by, well, by me! When you have grown up with parents who tell you that you can do anything that you apply yourself to; when you spend time with inspiring people telling you that you can really do anything; when you have a husband who says ‘have a go, you can do anything’ – it is all the more reason to give this gift to those small people around me. Hear it enough and you believe it. If you believe it, then you really can do anything! This was my first book, the beginning of it all.
