Wednesday, February 15, 2017

A Love of Reading

I go up and down the thrift shop aisles, familiar covers catching my eye. I've donated so many books to this store over the years, I wouldn't be surprised to see my name inside a few of them.

My little stack in the cart grows. Out of the whole pile, only one of the the titles is new to me.

Does it feel wasteful re-buying the same titles I've read and donated before?

Not at all, because something extraordinary is happening in my house. My daughter has found her love of reading again! Despite a 24-7 bombardment of social media, and days filled with school and sports, she still makes time to read books. I know too well that it's MUCH easier to scroll on my phone these days than open a book, so I'm even more impressed by her desire to read, especially after a few years of not reading much at all. That she wants to discuss what she's read, using words like symbol, narrator, and setting is almost too much for me to handle.

Love. Love. Love.

I had barely hoped this would happen, because she never showed interest in reading those books that meant a lot to me as a little girl: The Secret Garden, Gone With the Wind, Heidi, etc.

But now we are sharing grown-up books and it's delightful.

How did this happen, when it seems as if so much of schooling actually sucks the joy of learning out of kids?

One teacher.

Her 10th grade English teacher spends the beginning of every class sharing a book with her students. Five minutes is all it takes to give a brief synopsis of the book and share what makes it interesting. Students are free to take a turn doing the same, and Margaret's must-read list has grown.

Today she sent me a link of 3 more books to look out for.

So you bet these books are going home with me today. If out of these, she just reads one or two, I'll be happy. And maybe seeing her read more will get me off of Facebook for a while so I can do the same.





15 comments:

Unknown said...

Jealous.

kdthomas said...

I had a great 10th grade English teacher too... still inspiring me today!! Love you!

Anonymous said...

I love how a good teacher can be so influential. Now that my daughter is in 3rd grade she can easily read to herself. I thought she might prefer to do it on her own. Yet, we still read to each other and pass books back and forth. We are both loving the Little House series books. I hope we continue as she gets into middle school and beyond!

Marguerite said...

I feel the same way! It's too easy to scroll on your phone that I have not kept up with reading, which I love! I'm going to start reading right now!

KimB said...

That is so cool Margaret's teacher opens each class with a book suggestion. I love that idea. I have always loved to read and shop thrift stores for books-you can't beat the prices!

NanaDiana said...

Two of my grandgirls are readers and I am just thrilled. One of the things that spurred their interest was the Harry Potter series and I am so grateful for that. Have fun discussing books with your girl. xo Diana

Gigi said...

I absolutely love her teacher! What a great idea to share what she's reading (or read) to spark their interest in reading. I raised a reader - and we've always shared and discussed books - even when he was younger. I figured if it was something that interested him then I should read it so we could discuss. Unfortunately, college kind of stopped that as he had so much required reading to do that he really didn't have time to read for pleasure. Now that he's down to one, last class I'm hoping he'll get back to it - I miss our discussions.

Anonymous said...

and I'm dying to know ....what are the books???!! :-)
julie

Anonymous said...

My daughter used to hate reading. Hate hate hate. Would sit there for an hour, thinking she was fooling us, with the book held UPSIDE DOWN. Then I casually mentioned my fave book when I was her age & took her to the local bookstore, where they had it in a pretty pink cover (her favorite color). She got suckered by the color, in spite of herself. She started reading it, reluctantly, during an afternoon in her room. She came out like a rocket, all excited: 'This girl is JUST. LIKE. ME.!!!! She loves to yap!' (true), 'and she's an orphan like I am! (you're an orphan no more, but well, ok), and, and, and,.... Never mind that Anne was a redhead, and my girl is African. She was inspired, intrigued, and has not put books down since. That was 5 years ago, and the love affair is going strong. She tells me that if you told her years ago that she would love books, she would have laughed herself silly. Now it's her go-to - she loves to wander the aisles of the local bookstore.

Cindy



www.robinbotie.com said...

Thank you for bringing back the memory of reading aloud to my 20-year old daughter when we both wanted to read the same book.

Pam Priester said...

Wow! Her teacher needs to know the impact she's had on Margaret. What an affirming thing that would be for her!! Just wonderful!

katrynka said...

You are so right, it's just too easy to sink into our phones. I do the rounds, Facebook, instagram, Bloglovin, repeat. It's a difficult habit to break!

L and Ce said...

My favorite book growing up was "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". I must have read it 10 times!

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