Literacy Vignette

          My passion for reading began when I was just a baby.  My mother would sit me in her lap and read books to me.  My mother loved to hold me close and read books aloud to me.  Her favorite part was holding me close, but my favorite part was grabbing the books and putting them in my mouth.  Because my mother began reading to me at an early age, I strongly believe that she instilled a love for reading in me.

          I never stopped loving to read.  I remember every summer as a little girl, my mother would take my older brother and me to the local library and sign us up for the Summer Reading program.  The leader of this program was Mrs. Pickle (or so she called herself).  She was a local librarian that all the children loved.  My brother and I would go once a week during the summer to the library where we could check out as many as ten books.  I remember being so excited about going to the library that I would fantasize about the wonderful books I would get that day.  My mother says that as soon as I would get home from Summer Reading, she would have to read all my books with me.  This same event happened at least once a day for the next week until I could check out more books.  I would have books memorized from front to back.  The more I read them, the more I loved them.  Books were an escape for me.  I would read books about far away lands and picture myself there.  I would read books about a handsome prince falling madly in love with a beautiful princess, and instantly I would become that princess.  Books took me on so many journeys.

          Throughout my older elementary years, I feel in love with the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary.  I just knew some of those books were about me.  I would often think of how I was like Ramona, and I would often do the same things Ramona would do in a problem.  I felt like Ramona was one of my best friends.  I also loved the Babysitter Club books.  I can remember curling up on weekends with one of these books and not being able to put it down until it was finished.  I could relate to the Babysitters Club, and the characters in the books were role models for me.

          There was a time in middle and high school when we had to read books to get a certain amount of points in each grading period.  This was a difficult time for me.  I often wanted to take my time reading so I could really put myself in this book and relate to it.  Instead, I felt rushed to get all these points, and I was missing out on some parts of the best books.  I got through this phase just fine, and I learned how to put myself in these books, not get lost in them. 

          My love for reading is just as strong today as it ever was.  I now enjoy books by Nicholas Sparks, and I often find myself longing to read one of his books.  I will often reread a book over and over because each time I read it; I fall in love with the book even more.  I will often find that I have stopped reading and am in a daze.  Nicholas Sparks’s books take me to these unknown worlds living a different life, and I love that.  I love the fact that I can be in two places at once; at home on my bed, yet on a canoe with the man I love (the Notebook).  I have to give thanks to my mom for reading with me when I was just a baby.  I feel that if she would not have read to me like she did, my love for reading would not be what it is today!