It's no secret to those who know me that I love books! From a young age I fell in love with reading, and I have very fond memories of books from a very young age. I can remember in detail my older sister bringing home her "books" from kindergarten, and as she read, I listened and started to memorize what she was reading. Once I reached kindergarten a year later, I was able to read at a faster rate than the other kids my age because I had worked so hard to be on the same level as my sister.
Besides getting books from school, I had family members who would take us to the library often. In the summer we would go to the library weekly for the weekly reading hour, and then we would get to check books out on our own. My mom would check out longer books that she would read out loud to us at night while my dad was working graveyards at Tooele Army Depot. When my dad had nights off, he would often read to me as well. I remember sitting on our brown carpet in our living room, leaning against the gray cinderblock wall with him, and listening to him as he read the tales of Beatrix Potter. Peter Rabbit and the animals who lived in his world were some of my best friends throughout kindergarten and the first grade.
Once I turned five, I was able to get my own library card, and I was so excited. It still makes me smile to picture that simple yellow card with my name typed (yes, typed by a typewriter) across the top, and then the table below filled in with due dates that were hand-stamped by the librarians each time I checked out a book. One of the very first books I remember checking out on my own was the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. The book itself was bound in a simple brown leather (I'm sure it wasn't real leather), had very fine print, and the title on the front and spine was in a gold foil lettering. My mom had recommended the book to me, and I fell in love with it. I carried that book around with me for over a month because I was determined to read the entire story. I fell in love with Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, and I was so angry when Beth died. I also remember the disappointment I felt when Jo told Laurie that she wouldn't marry him, and then that disappointment turned to anger because Laurie ended up with Amy, and I didn't like Amy as much as I loved Jo. I wanted to be Jo March, and I wanted to write stories and be an author before I did anything else.
In the second grade, my teacher, Mrs. Peterson, made reading even more enjoyable by having reading charts in the classroom with our names on them. Each time we completed a book, we were able to put a gold foil star sticker on our chart. Again, since my sister had been in Mrs. Peterson's class the year before, I was determined that I had to read as many books or more than she had when she was in the second grade. That same year, Mrs. Peterson selected three or four of us one day, and she took us in to the "big kids" section of the school library that was reserved for the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students. We were allowed to pick out books from that side of the library from that point on. It was then that I discovered a set of biographies about historic figures, and I started reading the series that same year.
Third grade passed without a lot of changing in my reading. I did win the third grade spelling bee, and I feel it was due to my voracious reading habits.
In the fourth grade, my teacher would do a read aloud each day after lunch recess. It was Mr. Stone that introduced me to Tuck Everlasting, Baker's Hawk, and other stories about small town America. Around this same time I had a friend who would bring the book Charly by Jack Weyland to class. She told me how great it was, and so of course, I had to read it. I loved it all, and I read it in one day. It didn't matter to me that the main character died at the end; it was a story about true love, and I felt it was a happy ending for everyone involved. Yes, I cried my eyes out, but I still told everyone I knew that they should read the book. This was the beginning of my love for literature by Latter-Day Saint Authors, and the love continued well through high school into college.
My teacher in fifth grade instilled a love of travel in me. We had to complete state reports each month while in her class, but she made each state seem this exotic place to be. She loved the state of Hawaii, and she did a presentation on us for Hawaii that made all of us fall in love with the state as well. Miss Harvey made learning and reading fun, and as a result, we all thrived under her teaching. This same year a friend and I decided that we would begin racing through the set of biographies that we had first been introduced to in the second grade. So, for a second time, I read the entire set, and I think I beat him by completing all of them before he did.
After the fifth grade, I don't remember a lot of changes to my reading habits or likes. I just continued reading. As a result of my reading, I was well-prepared for honors English courses and eventually Advanced Placement English Language and Composition. I didn't take the AP Literature course because the teacher wasn't one who seemed to love reading as much as I did. It was when I was finally a senior in high school that I decided that I would pursue a career in teaching secondary English. Prior to that, I knew I wanted to teach, but I thought I would teach elementary school. It was my high school English teachers who helped guide me and set examples for me to decide to follow in their footsteps.
Now that I am forty plus years old, I still love to read. Reading opens new worlds to me, and I become friends with the characters in many of the books I read. I am part of a reading book group, and we meet monthly to discuss the books that we have read together as a group. I have to honestly say that I am a reader more than I am anything else. I hope that I can continue to instill the love of reading in my own children and my students because for me, reading is the world.
