Last week, I was telling our 5th graders a story about my start as a reader. I mentioned how when I was a toddler, my grandmother would set me down on her linoleum kitchen floor with a Sear's Catalog. She told me years later that I'd sit there and turn the pages softly and for a long time, mumbling things to myself as I did. I like to think it was practice for the reading life ahead of me. As I was telling that story (with a goal of connecting to my students as readers), I realized that my grandmother had been the one who'd started me on this path of books.
And then I realized what a great thing that was. Who is it that turns us on the path to books? Usually, it's our parents, our teachers, our librarians and sometimes it's our friends. Many people play a part in forming our reading lives. That doesn't even include the authors. We owe all of them so much.
Now, in looking back at my week and thinking about my first Kindergarten library class, I realized I was their first school librarian. It makes me really happy to know that, and it also makes me really excited about all the good books we'll share in the future.
Who started you on the path to reading?
What I'm reading now:
THE TRUTH OF ME by Patricia MacLachlan
Published: June 25, 2013
Published by: HarperCollins
Pages: 128
Wrote a blog about this, Honoring Grandparents Who Affect the Reading Lives of Their Families, at beyondliteracylink.blogspot.com.
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