Tyke Reading

Ever since I can remember there has been some kind of reading material around me. While growing up I remember my mom reading, as she still does all of the time; I also remember my dad used to take books into the bathroom and I thought he was crazy. I can clearly remember however this one book called Is Your Mama a Llama written by Deborah Guarino. I remember that my mom would read it to me before I would go to bed and I loved it and can recite so many lines from the book(it's not a hard one but still :P). This year for public speaking we had to bring in one of our favorite childhood books to read and I was so excited because I got to bring in this one to read to the class. This book is also really special because the author signed it and even wrote me a little note which I think is actually pretty cool. The first time I remember really being interested in a book was this book in the Duzine library about a little boy, except I don't remember the name which is really bad because of how many times I took it out of the library. Then again, it was like 10 years ago so I guess it's understandable that I don't remember it. I just remember that it had a hard red cover and every time that I took it out the librarian would be like "again!?" As I got older, the books I started reading got a lot harder and I really think that happened because of how much my parents read to me as a child and how much I read on my own when I was younger. I think it's really important to read to young children and have them start their literacy track early because it allows you to get ahead. Every time I babysit, I always make sure to read to them and they get to choose the book. As I got older, but still pretty young I remember reading the Junie B. Jones series by Barbra Park because I was able to relate to them and everything that Junie was going through, I was too. Then I grew out of those books, and in 6th grade I remember reading one of the best books I ever had, and none of my teachers thought I could handle it because of how mature it was but I read Dreamland by Sarah Dessin and it was extremely mature and I didn't understand it when I first read it but I got through it and then re-read it more as I got older and more mature and was able to fully understand what it was about. My first experience with a favorite author was Sarah Dessin after reading Dreamland and after that book I read all of the other books she had written and my collection of her books has grown so much. Every time she writes a new book I make sure to get it. I'm a big fan of reading now, and I think that because I was read to a lot as a child and have always been around books that's what really sparked my love for reading.