A reading autobiography told in parts: Part I

I remember books, readily available, always plentiful: gifts of books, hand-me-down books, library books.

"Pretend" reading

I remember adults reading. Mom and Dad always reading.

I remember being read to and me reading to, which I now understand is “pretend" reading.

Later, in first and second grade, I continued to read to my parents, but this time it was “for real” reading.

This was the book!!

On one of these occasions, I recall reading aloud from one of my Scholastic chapter books (the kind you bought using the book order form passed out by your teacher), when my father, who was watching over my shoulder, stopped me in mid-sentence to show me how to read italics. He pointed to the italicized word and repeated it aloud, demonstrating how it should sound in the sentence. He said something like, “The author does that when the word is important. He wants you to say the word with feeling.”

My father's explanation opened up a whole new state of awareness for me: meaning is derived from more than the words themselves, but also how they are arranged and formatted on the page, as well as how I choose to say and interpret them.

This is but one of many interactions in which my parents transmitted their love of books and reading to me. They demonstrated that reading is much more than simply matching sounds to symbols. It’s a process of listening, speaking, and being in relationship with others.

A reading autobiography told in parts: Part I