What books did you love growing up?
“A book that I read a lot was Rosie Revere, Engineer, about a child engineer—and now I’m going into mechanical engineering. They also had Iggy Peck, Architect, and Ada Twist, Scientist—a bunch of different books about different jobs.”
Eliot Eftimie, 20, Oregon State University engineering major
“I liked Peter Rabbit a lot because it was funny. There was the bunny rabbit and then there was the gardener. And the frog. It’s a cute story, and I think they made a movie out of it.”
Brianna Cabral, 21, Oregon State University finance major
“I’ll go with The Chronicles of Prydain, a five-book series based on medieval Welsh folklore that I read when I was 12. The Black Cauldron was one of the books. Disney made a movie from The Black Cauldron, but the books were great. Also Harold and the Purple Crayon.”
Dave Halsing, 57, environmental consultant
“My first thought is Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. The Judy Blume books were quite a hit. And then the Nancy Drew series. The other one that I thought about was the Sweet Valley High series about identical twins. Middle school girls got into it, but I think Nancy Drew was better.”
Jen Halsing, 52, CPA
“The Hardy Boys mysteries—probably 30 of them. There was always a curious plot they were trying to figure out, and they got into trouble sometimes. I appreciated the danger and escaping it and solving the mysteries. And I had two dog books, Irish Red and Big Red, about two Irish setters, a father and son.”
Lorenzo Kristov, 70, energy activist propagating local energy
“Charlotte’s Web. Who cannot like Templeton the rat bringing a rotten egg under Wilbur the pig’s trough, where the little boy fell into the trough, broke open the egg, and screamed, ‘Good night! Good night! What a stink! Let’s get out of here!’ But the best is how Charlotte marketed Wilbur as something special and saved him.”
Robin Kozloff, 69, artist
