Amanda.
What was your reading life like as a child? Were you an avid reader, an occasional reader, or a reluctant reader? Discuss what you believe to be the reasons for this?
“My Life In Books”
“Always have old memories and young hopes”
I have to admit that when I first saw this topic I thought, no problem, this will be a piece of cake. But considering that this is approximately my tenth draft I guess that it is a little more complicated then I first thought. I was going to try to answer each part of the question separately, but the answers are too intermingled so I hope this diatribe answers all parts of the question. As it turns out there is two different answers. The first is the simple answer. My reading life as a child was great. I was an avid reader, and I continue to be an avid reader. Some would even say I was and am an obsessive reader. It gets a little more complex when I get into the how’s and whys of my childhood reading life.
I was trying to narrow down the reasons why I had a good reading life, and what I can focus it down to one simple thing. People. the reason that I had a good reading life is because of a few select people in my life.
The biggest influences on my childhood reading life were my parents. Everybody in my family was pretty big readers, especially my parents. In our basement we had a rather large book case crammed full of books. There was all kinds of fiction and nonfiction. There was everything from classics, to new best sellers, medical texts and children’s books. Growing up I would pass by the book shelf and randomly take books down and flip through them, thinking about the day that I might be able to read and understand these books. as it would happen, it turns out I have very different reading tastes then my parents, but none the less. Though I find it interesting that even with my parents encouraging me to read, I always felt comfortable to make my own reading choices.
I was lucky enough to have a pool in my backyard, and one of my most vivid memories is of warm summer evenings when I would spend hours and hours swimming in my favorite blue bikini while my mom would be sitting in a lounger reading her latest Danielle Steel novel. Saturday mornings for our family meant large pancake breakfasts, lots of coffee and my dad sitting on the sofa with his Stephen King novel. Like many girls with an older sister every time she left the house, I would sneak into her room and play with her makeup, try on her clothes and read from her V.C Andrews books. They seemed so risqué at the time and I wanted so much to be sophisticated and read books like her. I never thought I would be old enough fast enough, to understand those books. So all my life I was surrounded by people reading. There was always someone reading around me, and it was seen as something fun to do. As young as the age of five I remember every Christmas and birthday I would get at least one book as a gift minimum. I remember one Christmas I got a set of books, a whole series thought I don’t remember which one it was. It was amazing. I felt like I had won the Christmas grand prize! My parents always really encouraged me to read. If I was especially good, or helpful around the house my reward was a new book from the babysitters little sister series, which I was obsessed with! Because I had heart surgery when I was quite young, my father did a lot of volunteer work for the Variety Club. I would go with him and sit by for hours reading. On the breaks he would sometimes take me to the nearest bookstore so I could get another book because I would have read the whole book in one sitting. When I knew a new one of the baby sitters little sister books was coming out I would beg my parents to go to the store that day to get it. I couldn’t get my hands on enough books. I didn’t really grow up with any grandparents. Both of my father’s parents died before I was in the 2nd grade, and my mother’s parents lived in Dublin. But when we went to Dublin when I was four, my grandpa and I spent hours together reading all the little miss books I had brought over with me. When I left he bought me a bunch more. So one of the first reasons I feel that I had a good reading life is a lot of support and encouragement from my family.
I think that a big part of a child’s interest in reading is based on the ability to do so. From class it seemed like people who have a difficult time reading become reluctant readers, and I would completely agree with that. I remember people in my class who had a tough time reading and they were the last ones I would ever see in the library. I was lucky enough to learn to read at a pretty young age. I do not have any memories of actually being taught to read, though I am sure at some point someone taught me. But I kind of feel like I learned more by just being read to then actually being sat down and someone saying okay lets learn how to read. It came pretty naturally to me reading. When I started kindergarten I was reading above my grade level with no difficulty. I remember around that time a lot of my teachers and my parents friends commenting on what a good reader I was. At the time these comments confused me. I had kind of always to some extent been able to read, and in my five year old brain it never occurred to me that for a lot of people this did not come naturally to them. I had a lot of classes in elementary school where the teacher would make the students read out loud to the class. You know one of those things where Sally reads a paragraph, then Billy, Then Serephina, ect. Some people dreaded the moment their name would be called, but I waited to be called with anticipation and glee. My teachers on a number of occasions complimented me on the fact that even in those little readings I always put feeling and inflection into everything thing that I read. Part of that of course that the fact that this wasn’t a chore to me. I know right now you are thinking I sound arrogant or full of myself, I don’t mean to be. I guess the point I am trying to make is that since I started reading young, and it came easily to me at school I didn’t find it boring or work. That makes a huge difference to a childs desire to read. If it had been difficult for me, or if my parents weren’t there to help me with the big words then I wouldn’t have been so eager. The librarian at my elementary school encouraged us to pick any book we wanted, and when I took my chosen book home my parents were always happy to read it with me. Encouragement and support seem to me to make all the difference.
Another huge person who impacted my early life of what and how I read was my sister Michelle. My sister is three and a half years my senior and truly one of the most horrible people that I have ever met in my entire life. (I bet you didn’t see that coming did you?) As you can most likely ascertain from that glowing description we have never been close. While we were growing up my sister only had one game that she enjoyed playing. It was called “Make Amanda Cry”. This game could be played solo or on special occasions she would invite her friends along. Either way the rules of the games were simple and consistent, do anything possible that would end in Amanda crying. This could be anything from pulling my hair, slamming doors on my fingers, sitting on top of pool toys while I was swimming so that when I came up for air she would be right above me and couldn’t get up or get air, to putting soap in my food and kool-aid in my cereal. So as a result of this, most of the time my mother would not allow my sister and I to play together. So when I was at home the person I played with most was my favorite doll in the world Cricket.
If you do not know who Cricket is let me explain a little about her. Cricket was a doll from the early to mid-eighties. She was super cute, with blond curly pig tales, a little stripped sweater, her own directors chair, and she had a tape player in her back that made her weigh a ton. She was so innovative for her time. Her mouth moved along to the tapes that you put in her back. On these tapes were songs and of course stories. Included with each tape was a book so that the child (i.e. me) could read along. Well I would sit with Cricket for hours upon hours reading with her. One of my closest friends at this time was two years older than me, and also loved to read, so she would come over and read stories with me as well. I could recite every store by heart. Every place I went I insisted that Cricket had to come to, much to the chagrin of my parents who had to carry her for me.(The tape player made her weigh a ton) So weather I was at home, or at a family dinner, or a birthday I had Cricket. In fact when I was four years old I had to have heart surgery and Cricket spent the entire time in the hospital with me reading me stories and keeping me company. When it came time to go into the operating room I decided that someone else should go, not me. So the orderly’s put Cricket on the stretcher and wheeled her into the operating room instead. For me Cricket made reading fun. I never felt like I had to read, it was just something enjoyable that my friend and I did together. The stories were pretty simple, but engaging and she was the start of my reading.
When I was growing up my mom had a close group of female friends who would get together every Friday evening. The group consisted of my mom and three other women. Every Friday without fail they would all get together at my house and drink pots of coffee, and gab and gab and gab. One of these women was my mom’s friends Neena. I looked forward to Fridays because no matter how involved they got in their chats when it came time for me to go to sleep I would put on my jammies, get into bed and Neena would read me three stories from my children’s book. It was a bunch of stories in one. They were sort of fairy tales/short kids stories. I don’t remember the name of the book as sadly my mother sold it, (along with cricket L) at a garage sale. But I looked forward to that every Friday. This was just one more example of a person who made reading for me a fun experience.
Last but certainly not least in my reading life is my aunt. To this day some of my favorite books have been recommended or given to me from her. Since I was quite young she has been recommending me books. This became most influential to my reading choices when I was about eight. She is the person who gave me Diary of Anne Frank, Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, Frog and Toad, and Little Women. These books helped me shape my reading choices. Later in life I became much more open to a wide range of reading genres.
I have had so many influences and I could go on and on with memories forever. But basically without these people and a few more I wouldn’t have been the addicted reader that I am. Now that I work with children each and every day, I make a point to read at least one story and day to the kids. If any kid at any time asks me to read a story I never hesitate to do so. I read dinosaur books, Goodnight Gorilla, Munsch, Dora, Where is Baby’s Bellybutton and many many more. Listening to one of my favorite three year olds in the entire world “read” me his book is the highlight of the week. One thing we talked about in class that I slightly disagreed with was the idea of the advertisement book type. The Disney’s, the Dora’s, The Caillou . I read the kids at the daycare these books all the time, and I don’t think I agree with that fact that all these books are meant just to advertise for the tv shows and merchandise. Lots of them give good lessons, and I think the kids like the books because they already watch the shows The books wouldn’t sway them either way. Especially for reluctant readers I think that encouraging kids to read anything is better than trying to sway kids to read the right books.
I think that my opinions haven’t changed much. I think that the key is encouragement and availability. Having someone for a child to go to for advice, someone to read to, someone to listening to their reading. That person could be a library tech, librarian, teacher, parent or other family member but there has to be at least one person there to encourage the kids lit growth. I guess that I have answered the question to the best of my ability. I love books, I always have, and I thank all those who inspired me to read………
