9.02.2014

Awe and Wonder

(Playing with magnets and ferrofluid)

I spend a lot of my time with small children. While I often crave quiet and solitude, I am struck by something amazing when they aren't fighting or screaming. Their sense of awe and wonder.

The littlest things can make their faces light up, and they ask questions about details that I wouldn't have thought about myself. A squirrel twitching its tail came make them laugh for an hour and water dripping from a spout deserves thorough investigation. These things that are mundane in adults' minds are astounding to these young ones.

I know I'm reading a good book when it lights up my sense of awe and wonder. It must be something that not only fascinates me, but brings out that child-like admiration and curiosity.

My favorite books are those of the Harry Potter series. The world Rowling created swept me away and left me forever lost in it. Every nook and cranny holds something of wonder. I could live at Hogwarts and never find it boring.

It's not only books for children that can provoke such feelings. There have been several adult books that have left me wonderstruck.

A fantastic plot and great characters are vital to a good story. Yet if you can provoke that sense of awe and wonder in your readers, you've got them hooked for life.

What books have aroused your sense of awe and wonder?

22 comments:

  1. Awe and wonder are HUGE gifts. The book which most recently gift-wrapped them for me was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I wanted to go there. I still want to go there. And would find new wonders around each and every corner. Not always comfortable, not always safe - but wonderous.

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    1. The Night Circus was a marvelous book! Unique and magical. I'd go see a show!

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  2. Currently my appetite on novels by Nicholas Sparks. I would love to read of Rowling.

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    1. I've not read any Sparks, but I see he's getting his own TV show! I shall add him to my TBR list. :)

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  3. Hi Christine - the little one looks totally hooked - lovely photo .. and as Elephant's Child says Awe and Wonder are huge gifts ... I just get hooked with all I'm reading - and get taken away to all eras of life ...

    Cheers Hilary

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    1. Thank you, Hilary! That's the fantastic thing about reading. You can go to any place and time you want.

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  4. C.S. Lewis and the world of Narnia did it for me. It still carries me away when I re-read the chronicles even now.

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    1. Oh yes, me too! Just to walk through my wardrobe into another world. That would be phenomenal!

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  5. So many books have opened up worlds for me . . . the first had to be Where the Wild Things Are, then sometime after that . . . The Hobbit, and The Chronicles of Narnia, and then Anne of Green Gables (who had scope for imagination), and Water Babies (old book), and Green Dolphin Street (another old book of my grandmothers), and the Bible, and all the fairy tales I read as a kid (and teen and adult), plus the Harry Potter books and so many others.
    I agree that children have an amazing capacity for awe and wonder.
    I see that and I want to slow down and have that too. :)

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    1. All fantastic books. I wanted to be one of the wild things when I was a kid! :)

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  6. Neverwhere and The Windup Girl come to mind. I'm reading The Library by Amy Cross right now that hits a note like Neverwhere. I love historical fiction for that reason... anything by Margaret George. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell. Angela Brown writes an awesome book as does Cherie Reich, you, Gwen Gardner, River Fairchild, Graeme Ing, Ellie Garratt, Julie Flanders, and Catherine Stine. :)

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    1. Neverwhere was an amazing read. Gaiman has that magic in his writing. And yes, so do all those authors! :)

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  7. I'm with you on the Harry Potter books. My daughter and I even waited up until midnight once to get the newest release at a book store. There aren't a lot of books that I read more than once, but I do with HP.

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    1. I can't wait until my little guy is old enough to enjoy the HP books. I hope he'll be as big of a fan as I am! :)

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  8. Harry Potter, of course! Brandon Sanderson's books also are awe-inspiring. He creates worlds and magic systems I want to live in and learn.

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    1. Sanderson is a phenomenal writer. Amora is a marvelously magical world to lose yourself in too! :)

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  9. The Harry Potter books leave me in that world and I wish i could find it:) I always loved the Grimm Fairy Tales. Agatha Christie novels always left me in that great era. Green Mansions I found magical.

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    1. The Grimm Fairy Tales are great! Though they can be quite frightening!

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  10. Awww, your son has such a wonderfully amazed expression on his face. When I was a kid, I was awed by Pippi Longstocking, the Narnia books, and later by Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles and the tales of Phillip K Dick. Now? I've been reading some compelling witch novels for my research on my own witchy novel. It's my job as a writer is to entertain in a similar way.

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    1. I remember watching the Pippi Longstocking movie and wanting to be her. Which witch stories are you reading now?

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  11. Mary, Windup Girl, too!!! And any story by Paolo Bacigalupi.

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  12. Bradbury and Asimov were my favorite authors growing up. I love watching kids' faces light up as they discover new wonders! Your son looks precious. :)

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