My Own Love of Reading

I was an early reader. No, no, it's true. And I give all the props to my awesomely, awesome Mom, who was really my grandmother, but she was Mom to me. Some of my earliest memories came from those special moments when I sat on my Mom's lap and we read books. My favorite was Katy No-Pocket by Emmy Payne and H. A. Rey. Katy was a kangaroo without a pocket, but then someone gave her an apron full of pockets and she was happy because she finally felt normal. Then I had another favorite about a snowplow who saved the day named Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton. I think I just liked snowplows back then. Next, there was Frederick by Leo Lionni, which featured a small mouse that seemed lazy during the busy harvest season, but in the dead of winter, the other mice realized that he was a wonderful storyteller that got them through the long, cold nights. I really could keep going on, but I want to have one blog post that isn't overly Rachael.

The point I am trying to make is that stories can be magical. In high school, I used to go over to my former elementary school to read stories to little kids. It was one of those things that I couldn't remember why I agreed to do it. I was busy with high school stuff, but I begrudgingly keep my word to show up. And I kept going back. You really couldn't have asked me to stop. I love reading to children. I tend to get into it, and I was so happy to listen to Zalika tell us stories because I saw that she gets into them, too.

So when you do read, read with heart. The children pick up on that. If you are excited, they feed off that. I saw it with a little girl this last year with a book called Skippy Jon Jones. The girl showed little to no interest in "word" books until Skippy Jon Jones came along. I like to think that it was my delivery, complete with accent and song, that may have shown her that reading can be fun and joyful. She may not have a mom at home reading to her or with her, and there are many more children out there like her, but we as teachers can still give the gift of magic. Have fun with reading and I hope that your students will, too.