Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Reading Promise

Kristin Brozina (aka Alice Ozma) is a girl from my hometown. Her dad was the librarian at the elementary school where my Mom launched her teaching career. Her dad is a free spirit known for finding baseball tickets, walking miles in an umbrella hat, and taking my Mom and I on excursions to Philly to see the Children's Museum, the Zoo, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

More importantly, Jim Brozina will be remembered for the promise he made to his daughter.
1,000 nights of books read aloud over nine years.
Growing up my parents read to me each night until I hit 4th grade and declared I was OVER story time. Those nights are ingrained in my memory. My mom would lay on my bed, my dad on the floor, and we would read together, laugh together, and talk about our day. Nothing came between the Fislers and storytime. In fact my mom was known for bidding company adieu so that my bedtime ritual was not disturbed.
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For the past year, each night, Mr. R. has read aloud to me. We conqured both volumes of Sherlock Holmes, a Stephanie Plum novel, The Throes of Democracy, and most recently The Tudors.

Now that we have a Pip I hope we can follow in the footsteps of Jim and Kristin. I already have a reading list in my head. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Treasure Island, The Hobbit, Mary Poppins... seriously, my wheels are spinning.

There is no substitute for books in the life of a child.” - May Ellen Chase

2 comments:

  1. Make sure to read "Goodnight Moon" like, twice a week. Best. Book. Ever.

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  2. I really like reading out loud to Caroline. We've fallen out of the habit, but it's still something I adore. Among many others, we plowed through all the Ramona Quimby books, and others written by Beverly Cleary, plus several of Roald Dahl's books. I didn't read James and the Giant peach as a kid, so it was a treat to read that one to Caroline.

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