Reading+Biography

=** Reading Autobiography **=

When I was almost five years old I remember watching one of my favorite television shows, //The Electric Company//. Every day they had a segment called, “The Word of the Day”. I distinctly remember frantically calling my mom into the room to tell me what the word on the television said. I so badly wanted to know how to read. Once I began school, the mystery of words began to unravel and I found my new passion, reading. I do remember a definite moment in kindergarten when everything clicked and I got it, I could read. I rummaged through a box of school papers and artwork my mom has kept for the last thirty-five plus years. Inside I found the following reading related items from kindergarten. Orange must have been a popular color in 1978.

I did not have the most ideal childhood. My parents divorced when I was eight years old. My twin sister, older brother, and I became latch key kids. There were remarriages, further divorces and a lot of moving - basically chaos. Reading was an escape, a safe place for me, it helped me to dream, learn, and see that anything was possible when I used my imagination. As a child, I spent hours reading in my room, outside, and at the library. I devoured books and loved picturing the characters, settings, and events of each story in my head. I know my parents did read to me from time to time. However, what I remember more than anything was listening to “audio books” on my record player. Some of my favorite stories to listen to were //A Bargain for Frances// and //Best Friends for Frances// by Russell Hoban.

As technology advanced so did my choices in “audio-books” I can recall sitting in my room with my new cool tape player listening to //Encyclopedia Brown// detective mystery stories. I also loved to read any //Peanuts// comics by Charles M. Schulz, had //Peanuts// bed sheets and a Lucy watch. //Little House on the Prairie// books by Laura Ingalls Wilder were also a favorite of mine. I wanted to be Laura. I loved the //Little House on the Prairie// television show as well. I still look at those books with fond memories. I went to a small Catholic grade school for the first eight years of my education. The school’s library was housed in an extremely tiny room that was also used for meetings. The nun who ran the library was quite old. However, in reality she might not have been considering everyone over thirty was ancient to me at that time. I remember feeling incredibly intimidated by her. She was very strict and did not encourage students to ask a lot of questions. The library itself, I am sure due to funding, did not have a wide selection of current children’s books or reference materials. Therefore, I spent most of my time at my local public library.

I always loved going to the public library. When I was in early elementary school our public library was actually housed in a large trailer. A few years later, the town built a beautiful new library facility. When I was a child, it was my escape from the turmoil of my family or whatever else was going wrong in my world. I loved getting lost in books and would spend hours reading or looking for information on any topic that interested me. I clearly remember thinking the librarians knew everything, or at least where to find it and found them very accessible and friendly. Once I entered high school, my love of reading still existed but was pushed to the back burner due to multiple reasons. The first of which is the amount of required reading and homework for all my classes. When I finally did have free time I wanted to spend it with friends, listening to music, watching MTV, anything but look at another book. However, I do recollect reading a bunch of Danielle Steel books especially during the summer.

I did visit the library during my teen years but I really don’t recall checking out books for pleasure reading. I believe the majority of the time I spent in the library was to conduct research for papers and assignments. Due to my parents choices, I ended up attending three high schools. So my memories really start to blend together when I try to think back about specific library experiences. I know I went to the school library for my English classes. However, I don’t ever recall the librarian leading us in a lesson or conducting any kind of reader’s advisory with me personally. I did read a lot in college but not for pleasure. I was an elementary education major with a minor in history. For one class in particular, Children’s Literature, I read numerous children’s books including a lot of poetry. Other than that, most of my reading concerned my methods textbooks and history. I mainly used the library to conduct research during college. I had various experiences seeking help at Founders Library at Northern Illinois University. A lot of the time I felt too embarrassed to ask for help. For some reason I thought I should already know everything, which looking back now was ridiculous. When I did ask for help, at times I really didn’t understand what I was told by the librarian and sometimes they did not follow up with me. There were also instances when the librarians were extremely helpful. My main thought about those encounters at Northern Illinois University is that it was a shot in the dark whether or not I received the help I needed due to both my insecurities and lack of support.

 During my career as a teacher, I read all the novels I taught to my students such as //The Giver//, //The Westing Game, Johnny Tremain, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, The Outsiders, Holes// and various Holocaust novels that my students read for literature circles like //Number the Stars, The Devil’s Arithmetic, Diary of Anne Frank,// and //No Pretty Pictures.// Beyond the novels I taught, I really did not read a lot of YA books. I found it difficult to find the time on top of all my teaching duties. For my own personal reading as an adult I like to read both non-fiction and fiction. David McCullough is my favorite non-fiction author. I love history. I have read //John Adams, Truman,// and //1776.// I am currently reading //Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt.// I am a huge Stephanie Plum fan. I can’t wait every summer for the latest installment of Janet Evanovich’s book to come out on paperback. I have reread most of the books in the series several times and still laugh out loud at the stories. I know the first book is coming out as a movie this summer. I don’t think I can watch it. I have my own pictures in my head of each of the characters and would hate to have that taken from me[].

 My work for the last eight years has been mainly raising my two children. We spend lots of time at the public library. When my children were babies and toddlers I took them to story time. My son began reading when he was four years old and has never stopped. He is now eight and will at times wake up at five in the morning to read. It has been great fun to rediscover my favorite children’s books with my children as well as new books. My son is also a huge Harry Potter fan. He is currently reading the fifth book in the series. These are books that never appealed to me as a reader. I tried to read them as a teacher and could never get into them. However, after reading them with my son and listening to his enthusiasm for the characters and stories I have a new appreciation for the fantasy genre.

 Through my library coursework, I feel like my love for reading has been reignited. Reading has always come easy to me. It was my saving grace when I was a child. However, somewhere along the way I let my love of reading slip away. I thought I was too busy to read and did not make time for it to happen. I felt like I found myself again. Not only did the library classes force me to make time for reading books other than textbooks, they helped open my eyes to see what I had lost. I rediscovered the escape of reading a great story and I really enjoyed discussing the books in my classes and their value in a school library collection. I have also read books and genres that I never would have chosen on my own. It helped me realize that as an educator and librarian I need to be a well-rounded reader. How can I hope to inspire students to read outside of their comfort zone, if I do not model that behavior myself?

 As a librarian and part of my reading-related goals, I plan to keep reading a variety of YA literature, not to stop reading, and push myself to try new genres. I hope to impact my future students by promoting reading for pleasure. I want students to know that I read YA literature. I would like to be seen as a reference for advice on book suggestions. I hope to become more knowledgeable about specific authors. Finally, I will keep modeling being a voracious reader for my kids and future students. I am excited about my future as a teacher-librarian and can’t wait to put all the knowledge I am gaining towards that end. = = = =