Booking Through Thursday asks:
“Who taught you to read?”
Short answer – my mom. The way she tells the story is that I came up to her at a very young age and asked her to “teach how me to read”.
We started with the basics - Go Dog, Go!, Ten Apples Up On Top, and various stories by Dr. Seuss. Then there were The Berenstien Bears and Little Golden Books. Dinosaur picture books came later, as did Stellaluna and Verde.
Those were all books that I could read along with her and figure out the words and stories on my own pretty quickly. Mom also read me stories like A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Little House on the Prairie, which I couldn’t read til later.
Beyond books though, my mom also read the dialogue of her video games to me. Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana, and Zelda: Link to the Past were just as influential in teaching me to read and teaching me to value stories as any of my picture books.
So, beyond just teaching me the mechanics of how to read books, my mom taught me to value and enjoy the stories that the books contained at an early age. That love of stories and of reading has stayed with me my whole life.
Thanks, Mom!
June 29, 2012
Golden Bookwyrm
3 responses to “The Birth of a Bibliophile”
Deborah the Closet Monster
June 29th, 2012 at 13:19
I think books were pivotal in creating my relationship with my mom. Thanks to the stories we read together, anything was possible . . . and we did it! That set of shared adventures (and love) helped me through tough times later. I hope my son will feel about me and books as I feel reflecting upon your entry, and my own experiences.
Golden Bookwyrm
June 29th, 2012 at 13:57
Bonding with Mom over books definitely influenced my teen years and even my young adulthood. I fully plan on teaching my kids to read the same way when the time comes! It’s more powerful than people realize, I think.
Shannon M. Howell
June 29th, 2012 at 16:23
And I thought I was the only one who learned some reading at a monitor. The first words I “wrote”(typed) were “open mailbox” in Kings Quest (#2, I think). I couldn’t spell, but I worked at it until I got it right… the day nobody would help me play