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Nana Teaching me Phonics
My nana was an English teacher and she devoted a lot of time to teaching my siblings and me how to read. I remember sitting at the table while she explained phonics to me. She had really old worksheets she had used to teach my mom and uncles how to read and she used them to teach me, my siblings, and at least 3 of my cousins how to read as well. -
Reading with Parents
Both of my parents are huge readers. I always picture my dad laying on his stomach on the floor with a book for hours on end. When I was little I would lay on his back with my own book and "read" too. I don't recall how much I could actually read on my own, but my mom would eventually come over and read to me while I sat there. -
Amelia Bedelia
I devoured the Amelia Bedelia books my entire childhood. I loved the wordplay and the silliness of it all. My mom would read them to me whenever I asked but I would always retell the story to her afterwards and eventually just memorized the whole thing. -
Library Summer Program
We'd stay with my grandparents in Florida every summer. My grandma is an English teacher and was a big advocate for us reading. Every summer she'd enroll us in a library reading program. I remember going for multiple summers and we'd basically read and do activities based on the readings. -
Little House on the Prairie
For Christmas when I was 6 years old my uncle bought me a Little House on the Prairie box set. This is one of the first books I remember reading on my own. More specifically, I remember staring at the word "Mississippi" on of the pages and teaching myself to spell it. I went to school the next day and bragged about it because I thought spelling long words meant I was hot stuff. -
Junie B. Jones
I have two younger siblings who really hated reading. My mom would gather us in her bed every night and read us usually one whole Junie B. Jones books. My siblings loved listening to the story and she'd take turns making us read little passages out of it. We did this for years and it evolved from Junie B. to Redwall to Harry Potter. We did this every night until we moved to Germany when I was in 7th grade. -
Ramona Forever
I remember my mom coming home from the thrift store and handing me a book. It was a yellow hardcover called Ramona Forever. She told me she loved the Ramona books when she was my age and I ended up adoring them too. Beverly Cleary became my idol at age 8. -
Reading with Cousins
I have 2 cousins who are only a few years older than me. When my mom was working we'd go to their house after school. They were really bossy and liked to play school so they could give me "assignments" and make me do schoolwork outside of school. Usually they'd just reenact their classes that day and I'd end up taking whatever they were giving me to read while playing and enjoying it completely. -
Harry Potter/ A Series of Unfortunate Events
I attended a book fair in 3rd grade and I purchased these 2 books. Both of them, part of larger series, became huge parts of my life. They both opened gateways to other books of similar genres and I always went back to them over and over again. -
Hanging out with Librarians
My mom was trying to teach my brother to read around this time and would take him to my elementary school library while she waited to pick us up. After school I'd meet her there and pick up new books of my own. The librarian was amazing and I'd go in there even at lunch to talk to her about what I had read. She always had amazing suggestions, too.
