For the love of books

I love to read. As in read anything as long as they are words. I sometimes embarrass Abby with my reading. Last week I was reading the new Rick Riordan book, Blood of Olympus. The fact that Abby’s classmates were also reading it made her question my level of maturity. The fact that I was having an involved discussion about the book with her friends upped my cool factor. At least I think it did.

She is probably still questioning my maturity level.

What I love most about reading is the ability to get lost in another’s world. That with your imagination you see the written word in pictures. The book transports you to another time or life. My tastes in literature goes from the high-brow to the pedestrian. On Monday I might read pure fiction on Saturday I can be found reading an autobiography.

I read anything from science fiction, to historical romance to a book about Patton.

Abby’s teacher has a phrase, “reading in the wild”. Abby loves this description. She told me it means that you read for the fun of it, not because you have been ordered to read. Just for the pleasure it brings you. Abby will read in the car, in the bathroom, on the porch or in her bed. Where she once just read for that 30 minutes before bedtime, Abby has learned how to escape into that “wild” where books transport you. I know find her under her covers reading by flashlight.

I get my love of reading from my own mother. She always had a book in one hand and was multitasking with the other. I love that this ability to escape into a book has been passed down to my own children. That as Abby gets older she will call me and say I’m reading this book you have to get it and I reply I’m on chapter 4. (True story, happened to my mom & I last summer the book was Maine)

Then this weekend something amazing happened.

Bridget fell in love with “The Big Pumpkin” last fall in her preschool class. It is a book on tape and she would (if her teacher allowed) sit and listen all day long. She loved it so much a classmate who had the book gave their copy to Bridget.

What I love about Bridget reading is that although she is not “reading” she is telling you the story page by page. She is retaining the story from the tape and her teacher reading the book to her. She knows exactly what is happening on each page that she oh so carefully turns. She acted out what is happening, she GOT the story. Remember that post about milestones? This is a huge one. One that we will write down and say with fondness we remembered the first time Bridget read.

This weekend something I never expected happened. Bridget read for the first time ever. How cool is that?

This weekend Bridget read for the first time. How cool is that?

10 thoughts on “For the love of books

  1. Janine Huldie

    That is seriously awesome and I got to say I am seeing such excitement in Emma, now in Kindergarten. with reading. We just attended the book fair last week. I spent almost %40 in books, but didn’t even mind, because she loves reading with me and I know that this was money so well spent. And I resigned up for your updates. For some reason, I still wasn’t getting updates and just realized it. So, sorry that it took my frazzled brain to figure out that you changed your BlogLovin feed all together and that it didn’t merge the old one. But I am here and so happy I am 🙂

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    1. firebailey Post author

      Welcome back 🙂 It is funny although Bridget cannot “read”, by listening to the book on tape she is now relaying the story. Page by page. It was quite awesome to see.

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  2. Kristi Campbell - findingninee

    YAY Bridget! OMG that is SO SO HUGE. Seriously, Kerri. HUGE big huge huge. And, I love that it is The Great Pumpkin that she fell in love with and told the story from as her first book. Because The Great Pumpkin is totally awesome.

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    1. firebailey Post author

      It is funny, she fell in love with that book last year. Once it was put away in the classroom she never looked at the book at home. Until this October when it magically reappeared in class. Her teacher was the one that cued me in that Bridget was “reading” the story out loud. And DRAT WITCH! Just cracks us up.

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  3. thelatchkeymom

    This is huge!!!! Big time. And I think she is reading, we just don’t understand, but we will! A spunky girl like that won’t give up. Thank you for sharing the video, it really made me smile. And I love her boots.

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  4. christine

    Oh my word, this is awesome! Such passion and excitement in her telling of the story! Unrelatedly, I love her boots. 🙂 And I really smiled when she said, “mommommommom”. My youngest does the same thing. Even if I’m sitting right there with him, looking right at him, and have been listening to him for the previous 5 minutes, he will repeat “mom” until I verbally acknowledge that he wants to say something else.

    It is wonderful to have kids who love to read. I have a Kindle and bought one for my mom for her birthday. It works beautifully, because now we don’t have to wait until we see each other to exchange books we’ve purchased. I can call her and say, “Hey, I just finished______ you can read it now.” Within seconds, she can.

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    1. firebailey Post author

      My foolish, foolish mother bought a NOOK which is completely incompatible with Kindle. Silly mom. I blame my dad as I was buying her the Kindle for Christmas one year and he trumped me by purchasing it for their anniversary a few months before. The boots totally make the summer outfit in October. She is too funny, stealing them from her sister’s give to charity pile.

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  5. lookingforbluesky

    What a wonderful moment to treasure, and isn’t it great that you have somewhere where you can share it with the world too? My daughter has no speech, but I remember with joy when I first realised that she was trying to turn the pages of books at the correct moment as I read to her, so then I knew that she got it 🙂

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