I love to read. I remember when I first learned to read. In kindergarten there were labels on all of the objects in the room (chair, desk, door). At one point the teacher commented to me that those letters were the names of those items. It was like a light bulb for me, that was all there was to reading? Just using those letters? I thought it was more mysterious. In first grade, the teacher had me read the first primer...I still remember it.
Run.
Run, Tom, run.
Run, run, run.
And there was Tom with his red wagon, running. After that, I went back to my desk and read the rest of the book. I was reading. In second grade our teacher was reading Winnie the Pooh out loud and let me follow along in my own copy of the book. It was the first time I realized that words could go different directions on the page. There was a scene in which Pooh is using a balloon to reach honey high in a tree, and the words go up the page as he rises. Wow!
So, it was with delight that I just finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak. It is technically young adult fiction, and was recommended to me by my 13 year old, but I really enjoyed it. Well, it is pretty grim, so enjoy may not be the appropriate word. It caught me. The young heroine has a love of words and books, just like I did. She would do anything, risk her life even, to read, to read anything and everything.
1 comment:
I've been reading your blog a little bit like a novel, I guess... from the beginning. I stumbled across it when I was looking for The Red Cow from Mary Poppins. I didn't plan on continuing on to other posts; I just did. I suppose its discovering the many similarities that make me want to move on to another and another. I also remember making a play costume for my son that I shook my head over (not Augustus) but just as questionable... We have specific and important traditions (not an office party) but equally specific and personal to our family... My son's Legos and Bionicles are some of the kid things that did not get donated when he got his own house... My memories of that first primer are just as vivid; there was a dog named Tip and a cat named Velvet.
Anyway... I finished 2007 and 2008 and thought I'd let you know that your words and thoughts are guiding me down my own memory lane.
Helen
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