What does it mean to be a reader?
This is something we’ve explored in class all week, but I think being a reader is often times personal. Sure, readers like books, and enjoy reading, and will read a lot. But readers also have particular preferences: books that have shaped their lives through character and story. I firmly believe that being a reader isn’t something you’re born into, but something that’s been encouraged, honed, and crafted through years and pages.
In my own life, I was lucky enough to grow up with a mother who loved reading. She learned it from her mother, who learned it from hers, so in a sense, being a reader is in my blood. But I also recall stories that have shaped me over the years. I remember The Pokey Little Puppy at bedtime. Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. My mother reading the latter to me many nights because I often felt like that little rabbit, threatening to run away too often. As I got older, I found Little House on the Prairie & Freckle on my nightstand, but as much as I loved my mother reading to me, I’d pull The Secret of Platform 13 and other magical tales from my bookshelves asking for them instead. Those nighttime stories shifted to the land of Narnia. I’d dream my way into Wintry Wonderlands and wake up trying to find a secret door at the back of my closet. Though I never grew out of my love for fantasy (I grew up, literally, with Harry,) I quite remember a shift in tastes during junior high.
Then there was the summer I discovered Nancy Drew, solving my way through all her mysteries on the old library shelves. After that came the Sweet Valley High Twins, Jessica and Elizabeth, who convinced me I’d move to California after high school when my own little Baby-Sitters Club took off. My jaunt with realistic fiction led me to Sarah Dessen as a teen, and The Truth About Forever struck me in a way no other book had before. I knew I’d study literature and writing after those lunchtime library book clubs, penning novels that would line the shelves of my Alma Matter.
Several years and reading slumps later (thanks to being an English major) I found myself at the last Harry Potter midnight release party and I knew, without a doubt, someday I’d be Kathleen Kelly incarnate. I might not ever share Ballet Shoes and twirl with my young customers, but I’d show them Middle Earth and help them pick out their wands.
Today, my classroom is lined with shelves, and though I might not hold story time on a weekly basis, books come and go in the hands of my students. I’ve rediscovered my love for middle grade fantasy and can’t help but continue being drawn into YA drama. Especially since there’s so much of it around me everyday. Books shaped me as a child and continue to mold me as adult, writer, and teacher, which is why first and foremost I’m a bibliophile: my great love of books spilling over the pages and into my life.
-Ms. Lore
Post Assignment ||
For this post, expand on your reader interest survey. What has your reading life been like? Share specifics from your childhood through your elementary, junior high, and high school years. Were you read too? Did you love reading? What books did you enjoy? Did you continue to love reading? When did it stop? Or if you’ve never been a reader, why not? What obstacles got in your way? Family wasn’t full of readers? Trouble finding books? Busy with other activities? Explain.
If specific books have impacted you up until this point, make sure to write about them as well.
If you’re having trouble organizing it: take some creative liberties. Talk about the books that impacted you over the years (as I did above) OR tell a story about why you aren’t a reader. What did you choose to do instead?
Specs: Your post should be at least 250 words long and organized into paragraphs. Title it: My Reading Life
Posts are due Thursday, September 5th by 11:59pm.