Think back. Think about the stories from your childhood and the influence they had on you growing up. The ties that bind us internationally might be stronger than we realize. From Poland to Brazil, Australia to Canada, we have been brought up on many of those same children’s stories. This is what Epoch Times reporters discovered when they asked locals around the world, “What is your favorite book from childhood?”
Samanta Cardoso, 29, Dentist with son Mateus (The Epoch Times)
Samanta Cardoso, 29, Dentist
The Little Prince, because the story is cute and I used to become excited with the Prince’s discoveries—all the time he would discover something new. I don’t remember the details of the story very well ... he lived on his planet and was in love with a flower and traveled to many places meeting several people.
Bianca Kristenson, 22, Stylist (The Epoch Times)
Bianca Kristenson, 22, Stylist
Where the Wild Things Are. My parents weren’t really big into buying me books, so it’s pretty much the only book from childhood that I remember … There is a kid, monsters, and the kid gets into a fight with his mom. I really liked the pictures and they are actually coming out with a movie about it this year, on October 16.
Morosanu Andrei, 23, Economist (The Epoch Times)
Morosanu Andrei, 23, Economist
My favorite book was Winnetou. When I was a child I liked those adventures from the Wild West involving Indians because it depicted a world very different from the reality here in Romania.
Hafiz (left) and Ezwan (right), both 19, Students (The Epoch Times)
Hafiz (left) and Ezwan (right), both 19, Students
Hafiz: I vividly remember this story book called The Lion King. It’s both a funny and touching story. It’s my favorite because the story is about animals, which is unique because most stories are about human beings. Most importantly, I’ve liked animals since I was young.
Ezwan: My favorite childhood book is Cinderella. Actually, I like fairy tales, even though they’re more for girls.
Alessandro Tinacci, 56, Professor of Italian, Literature and Philosophy (The Epoch Times)
Alessandro Tinacci, 56, Professor of Italian, Literature and Philosophy
My favorite book from childhood is White Fang by Jack London. Through this book emerges a special moral talent and the spirit of fighting against adversity in life. Therefore the picture of White Fang became a metaphor for existence, of everyone and all people, immersed together in this wild world.
Jyri Viuhko, 39, Art Teacher (The Epoch Times)
Jyri Viuhko, 39, Art Teacher
The book is about Curious George and his adventure, this time about a curiosity that results in a hospital visit with all that it implies. I love these books when they encourage creativity and discovered pleasure in a fun and very nice way. They often show the links between cause and effect, but always with a happy ending!
Anna Bowmen, 27, Fashion Designer (The Epoch Times)
Anna Bowmen, 27, Fashion Designer
My favorite book from childhood is The Whole Mirth Catalog: [A Super Complete Collection of Things]. I like it because it had a lot of strange inventions that only children would like and I still have it till this day. I look through it all the time, it’s wonderful.
Stewart Maxwell, 59, Manufacturer of Custom-made Surfboards (The Epoch Times)
Stewart Maxwell, 59, Manufacturer of Custom-made Surfboards
My favorite book from childhood was the Noddy set of books—Noddy and Big Ears [by Enid Blyton]. Apparently they were banned because people deemed them as being slightly toward the pornographic end, and they were deemed as being gay —a little bit risqué, people reading between the lines. And so they banned, what I thought, from my childhood and still do think, was a very entertaining book for kids.
Hania Szczerbak, 30, Art Historian (The Epoch Times)
Hania Szczerbak, 30, Art Historian
If I had to choose one book which had the most significant impact on me during my formative years or which I think of as truly exceptional, it would have to be Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales, which were a constant companion to me as a child. It was my father who first read them to me and the earliest ones that I recall were Snow Queen and The Little Match Girl. It is these two that I most strongly associate with Andersen’s Fairy Tales. What I was most struck by in these stories was Andersen’s extraordinary ability to weave words together in ways that crafted such vivid images that so strongly impacted the imagination and resonated emotionally with the reader. I came to know the tales by heart, as they made me cry and elicited a feeling of nostalgia and quite strong emotions.
The Snow Queen is a classical tale of the struggle between good and evil and self-sacrifice in the name of love. The Little Match Girl, on the other hand, was about exposing certain social realities of that time. Obviously, as an adult, one evaluates these tales differently and sees different things in them, but the saddest story was how the little match girl ran out of matches and when the last match finished burning and giving off its warmth, the poor little child froze.
Taipei, Taiwan
Chiang Te-cheng, 38, Data Collector
The Art of Being Successful—it tells the success stories of famous people. Because I do manual labor for my career, these stories are related to my work, so from them I can get a lot of benefit.
Look for the Global Q & A column every week, when Epoch Times correspondents interview people around the world to learn about their lives and perspectives on local and global realities. Next week’s global question: “According to the dominant values in your country, what is the ideal man and the ideal woman like?”
