Raising Readers

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love to read. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Twilight. The Great Tree of Avalon. Inkheart. Dragon Rider. Fablehaven. Julius Ceasar. When my school friends would breeze through the assigned readings, skimming assignments and barely caring, I answered all of the comprehension questions at the end of the stories. I don’t know if I realized it then, but when I was reading, I felt more powerful, like I understood more. Like I could be more. 

Growing up, my mom, aunts, and grandmother always read. I remember my mom staying up late copying Bible verses onto a small, spiral bound legal pad. We would travel, a book-loving brigade, more than two hours to the nearest Barnes and Noble for all of the Harry Potter book releases. Audiobook narrators became the background sound of my world, and even now, I listen to audiobooks as I fall asleep, the sounds of someone else’s imagination lulling me to sleep. 

I carried that love of words with me to college. By majoring in English, I set myself up to read a wide variety of literature. I read journals from early Europeans in the Americas, like John Smith—who I had only encountered through my Disney-level understanding of Pocahontas. I read plays by contemporaries of Shakespeare, early American literature, world literature, and even had a class where the professor, a short man with white, fuzzy hair, quoted poetry as he walked into the room. 

As a mom, a love of reading hits differently. My time is not really my own anymore. I’m now responsible for keeping people not only alive, but happy-ish. I go to work where I teach and encourage high school learners then come home and try to do the same. I don’t always get it right. 

But this morning, my youngest asked me to sit on the couch with him so he could read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix out loud to me. He’s in 3rd grade. I don’t get it all right. Not even close. But, I’m passing on a love of reading. I’m watching as my kids develop confidence and learn new words. 

More than anything though, I hope that I’m passing on the knowledge that by being readers, we are becoming better human beings. And that’s the goal of parenting and teaching, isn’t it?