White Fang by Jack London.....The reason I became an avid reader.
We have to go back to the very early 1950's to find the reason for my love of reading.
At the time we were living on the Red Lake Reservation. There was no TV, but we did have a radio, but only one station was available. Money was something what we only heard about, since we had little of it.
For my tenth birthday in 1951, my grandmother and grandfather bought a book for me. It was Jack London's, White Fang.
It was used, but it was my first book. I have no idea how they were able to get ahold of the book, or pay for it. But there it was, wrapped, with my name on it.
White Fang is the companion book to Jack London's, ''Call of the Wild''. The story of a wolf/dog and his owner, in the Yukon Territory in Canada.
At the time we lived on the Minnesota, Canadian border and the winters were the same as being in the Yukon. Additionally we living in the wilderness, so relating to ''White Fang'' was easy. I also had a wolf/dog that I had found and raised since it was a few months old. I named him, ''Ma'iingan'' (wolf). OK, I has only ten and not very inventive with names at the time.
I devoured the book, and more than once. It was my window to the world. From that very first book, I developed a life long love of reading.
I still have the book, with the inscription that my grandparents wrote in it. They could not write in English, only in Ojibwe , Michif and French. The inscription is in Ojibwe.
It is the most prized book in my library.
From that simple start, I have to thank my grandmother, grandfather and parents for doing everything that they could to find books for me to read.
I feel that it was instrumental in the successes that I've had in life. Chi-miigwetch (many thanks)
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