These were a cornerstone of my childhood, and I remember getting through Mattimeo all by myself, and feeling like I had really crossed a threshold in my reading development.

"Now I'm reading the big books!"

It was also the first and blessedly not the last time that I finished a book and had this almost sad feeling that it was over combined with the awestruck feeling of having just shared in a monumentally good story.

One other funny thing about the books is something I discovered much later in life when I was talking with a friend about them: The friend marveled at the fact that I read them as a child and did not grow up to be a furry. So there's that.