Reading Fanatic

Our daughter has become me. I am thrilled! When I was her age I walked a mile to school and a mile back, reading the whole way. My nose was nearly always in a book. Today as we left the house to take her brother to his occupational therapy, she read the whole way to the van, the whole way there, while we sat in the van, and the whole way back. I had assigned one chapter today. She read three. Such is the lure of a truly good book!

I can't take all the credit for this, of course (much as I'd like to!). Some children who are exposed to good literature from infancy and are read to for hours on end, as all our children have been, really don't have their own love affair with books until they are much older. I have tried hard not to expect that all our children will be strong readers. So perhaps that is why it is so wonderfully thrilling to me that at least one of them IS!

I am having to really speed read to stay ahead of her in this book. In fact, she is ahead of me at this moment. But it's a great book that's hard to put down, so I'm sure I'll catch up quickly. ;-) What book is this you might ask? Yesterday she began Calico Captive, which is the true story of a young lady and her family who were captured by Indians and sold to the French during the time of the French and Indian War (1754-1763). It's very gripping.

I am so thankful for good books! And I'm so thankful that my own parents read to me, read their own books in front of me, and still read for pleasure. My mom took us girls to the library each week with a large cardboard box which we would fill to the brim. The next week we'd return all those books and fill up the box with new ones. When I was old enough I was allowed to ride my bike to the library, where I would fill up my bike basket with gems that I had picked out all by myself. It was during that time that I fell in love with biographies. I read the entire shelf of biographies at my elementary school library, and most of the biographies at the public library! I can vividly remember getting my very own library card. Wonderful!

When I was in 6th grade I read the unabridged version of Little Women. It drew me in so completely that even though it was about 3 inches thick (I am not exaggerating) I read it while walking to and from middle school, which was about half a mile each way. I made the mistake of staying in at recess to finish the chapter where Beth dies, and I cried so hard that I was embarrassed when everyone else came back in after recess and wondered what had made me cry!

In 7th grade I read The Longest Day, which is a story of D-Day told from many different perspectives. It was fascinating and horrifying all at the same time. I learned so much about honor and duty and sacrifice from that book. It left an indelible impression on me.

As our daughter reads more and more fluently and makes more of her own choices for what to read in her free time, I pray that I can continue to guide her towards truly great literature, while also allowing her the freedom to read about some topics that may seem more "adult" for her age (such as my reading of The Longest Day at age 12). That's a fine line sometimes. I'm so thankful for the wisdom God gives!

Thanks mom and dad, for instilling in us girls a great love of books and language, and in doing so, blessing your grandchildren even before they were born. And thank you for giving us such good books as gifts. They are treasured and well loved (as the velveteen rabbit was loved!), and they encourage us to continue reading to our children and passing on to them a love of books. In this day and age, it's so much easier to turn on the tv than to pick up a book, so we need all the encouragement we can get!

We are very excited to take our son G on a date to the library to get his own card, when he turns 9 in May. We did this with our daughter when she turned 8, and now it's his turn. He wants this desperately. I can't wait to see his face when he realizes what we're there for!