Reading

When Heidi was in second grade, her teacher gave her the book, "Sarah, Plain and Tall" to read.  Heidi was the tallest in her class and kept telling me how ugly she was.  I couldn't understand how her teacher would send her home with this book.  So I quickly grabbed it from her backpack while she and her sisters were doing their after school things, went into my room and read it.  It turned out to be the perfect book for Heidi at that time and is a book I give to 8 year olds to this day who are feeling gawky and unsure of themselves.  Her teacher had read it and loved it and knew Heidi would too.  To this day, it is one of Heidi's favorite series of books.  


In Texas, the students from 3rd grade through 6th grade - all over the state, get to vote on a list of books.  Some are Newberry Award books, some are even Caldecott so the non-readers can participate, but some are just there.  The years our daughters' brought the list home that they could vote from, I could tell by just by the title, which one would #1.  One year there was a bit of a controversy about one of the books, at our school.  I knew it was going to be the #1 book but the librarian and some of the mothers wanted it banned.  I was PTO president that year, so told them I would read all of the books on the list and tell them what I thought.  To this day, I am not sure why that appeased them, but it did.  The book was not banned, (it is basically a young peoples ghost story but I would have suggested it more for middle school than elementary) and yes it did make #1 that year.  After that for the rest of the time our daughters were at that school, as soon as the Bluebonnet book list came out, I was given the books and told to read them, by the principal and teachers.  One year I did pull a book that I don't even remember the title.  But interestingly enough, it was eventually pulled from the list.  It wasn't banned but I just felt it was too mature.  I had our librarian send it over the high school/middle school library.


I love to read and so do our daughters.  My parents and sister love to read.  My daughters are passing the love to read on to their children.  Some of my daughters' spouses like to read more than others but we all have a love and appreciation of books.  This blog all started yesterday when Clyde and I drove by Narragansett Bay.  It was green and very choppy.  In the book "Sarah, Plain and Tall", Sarah buys colored pencils, blue, green and gray, to show the children the color of the sea.  She describes the sea so perfectly in the book, that I often think of that book and those pencils.  Every time I think of that book, I think of reading everything our daughters read as long as they lived in our home.  We went through a Mary Higgins Clark together and read all of her books and read quite a few Danielle Steele books together (because my mother belonged to book clubs and would get those).  We found other authors we loved but then we found our favorites were Young Adult books and we have all pretty much stuck there.  Even now we share what titles we are reading and our favorite authors so that the others can enjoy them too.  


I am not sure the purpose of this long blog, except maybe, be aware of what your children are reading when they are young.  Sharing what your children are reading when they are older, broadens your horizons and just might lead you in a new direction.  My other piece of advice:  if you get into a book and don't like it, don't read it!  Why punish yourself?  Life is too short and there are some amazing books out there.  Don't waste your time on something you don't want to read (unless it is a school assignment - then I can't help you - unless it shouldn't be.  That is between you and your teacher then).