HOW HARRY POTTER MADE ME READ TWILIGHT by Rosemary Loomis

Contributions and Transcription provided by Camelia Walker

I’ve always loved to read. As a child, I loved having adventures with my favorite character, Nancy Drew. When my daughter was born, I was so excited and eager that she would enjoy journeying through books the way I did. I helped feed that love of books by reading to her each night when she was a baby. Before long, my daughter had developed her own love of reading.

One day when she was in the fifth grade, my daughter came to me and she was so excited!

"Mom! You have to read this book! It's so good!"

"What is it and what is it about," I asked. This was the first time she'd been this enthusiastic about a book, so I was interested to hear more. 

"It's called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

My daughter’s enthusiasm drove me to get a copy of the 

Harry Potter novel and read it. To my surprise, I liked the 

story, too, and we became fans of the series. Later that year, 

on a family camping trip, we listened to an audiobook version 

of the book. That was a fun way to enjoy the story a second 

time. I was amazed when my husband, trapped into listening 

to the story with us, said, “Hey, this is a pretty good book.”

From that book on, I made a habit of reading some of the 

books my daughter recommended. It gave us a chance to 

share our pleasure in compelling scenes and interesting 

characters. More importantly, it was a way for us to bond and 

spend quality time with one another. For some books like 

Holes by Louis Sachar, the fun was not only in reading the 

book, but reading it out loud to one another. A classic line 

like, “It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-

stealing great-great-grandfather!” is twice as good because 

we laughed at it together.

That quality time we spent through books became even more 

precious as she grew older and her world expanded.Although  

still an avid reader, as a teen my daughter was spending

more time with friends and engaged in activities I did 

not share. So, in the height of the Twilight fervor, when my 

daughter started another conversation with, "Mom! You have 

to read this book! It's called Twilight and it's great!", I took a 

deep breath and said, "Sure!"

GET TO KNOW A CONTRIBUTOR: Gathy Tyree

Agatha "Gathy" Tyree is a United States Air Force Retiree with twenty-two years of service as a medical technician, serving her last twelve years with the 4th Medical Group, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. After retiring, she continued to serve with the Employment Security Commission in Greenville, North Carolina as an employment consultant for disabled veterans. Later in her career, she worked as a Veterans Service Representative with the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Winston Salem, North Carolina. An avid reader, she became a volunteer tutor with Literacy Connections. Gathy enjoys photography and writing. Currently, she is planning to publish a collection of her photography and inspirational poems. 

fREADom by Camelia Walker

Celebrating the Fourth of July usually makes 

me think of freedom and the Declaration of 

Independence, especially the part about 

equality and inalienable rights. Today I’ll 

share a few ways that reading has been a 

tool for my own freedom.

LIFE

Reading supports my life because I can read about ways to improve and preserve health.  From books on yoga and making your own kombucha tea to magazine articles on the safest car to drive, reading has been a primary source of good health for me. In addition to physical health, biographies, histories, and philosophical books are doorways to knowledge about leading a good life.

LIBERTY

Books have been a major key to my personal freedom. Starting as a young child who read anything I could get my hands on—from cereal boxes to encyclopedias, reading was the greatest escape, the most delightful voyage and the most fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon…and a Saturday night…and the wee hours of a Sunday morning. A particular book, the Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, along with a patient big brother, were the keys to my driving freedom. Getting my provisional driver’s license at the green age of 15 was such a thrill! I was only allowed to drive to and from school but that independence felt like a giant step.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

When I think about my happiness journey, the one thing I can definitively assert is that the journey would not have been so rewarding without books and the ability to read. It has been through books that I’ve learned the most useful keys of happiness. It was Norman Vincent Peale and the Dalai Lama who taught me that happiness is less a pursuit and more a lens through which I can view the world. The poetry of Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni provided my 101-level classes in ‘rockin’ what I got’.  And it’s been countless authors who have given me days and months and years of entertainment through their intricate and sometimes ridiculous plots, amazing characters, and engaging stories.No matter how I think of freedom and my ability to move independently in the world, I cannot separate my liberty from the ability and opportunity to read. Because of that, from now on, I’ll always associate the Fourth of July with “fREADom!”

FEATURED POST by Charles Gaylor, IV

It has taken over 17,000 years of advancement in the way people communicate and the politics of learning to bring about Literacy Connections of Wayne County in 2019. This seems like an audacious claim, but it is backed up.  People have changed from communication through gesture, to sound, to drawings, to symbols, to modern language.  Each step has come with its own challenges and its own enhancements.  What has not changed is the impact of knowledge. Knowledge is powerful.  The ability however to communicate knowledge is transformative.  The capability to clearly transfer knowledge without being personally present has become the foundation on which our entire society is built.

Communication through sound is a wonderful tool.  People have utilized this ability for tens of thousands of years.  Without sound, our shift from a purely responsive species to an initiative-taking species would have failed to occur.  Consider that through sound, an elder can pass along his experience to a youth, thereby helping the youth devise a way to prepare for, or totally avoid, an issue.  This is significant and unique among known life.  This tool enables us to learn from each other.  There is, however, a major flaw.  Learning through sound, through basic rudimentary spoken language, requires a minimum of two people to be concurrently in a conversation.  Another flaw is that an original firsthand account will endure only for the lifetime of the person who experienced the event.  Sounds, and other in-person forms of communication, are incredible and transformative; however, the power of this communication conduit is limited.  Enter: The ability to draw.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux

The earliest discovered form of storytelling through drawing is found in the Lascaux Caves in the Pyrenees Mountains in southern France, where a series of cave paintings that date back to circa 15,000 to 13,000 B.C. depict a variety of animals and one image of a human being.  When closely examined, the drawings follow a simple series of events telling of rituals performed and hunting practices.  These images tell a story.  They hold knowledge.  The person with the firsthand experience undoubtedly discussed this event with other people during his life, but he has long since passed away.  While no longer with us, his exact depiction of what he experienced remains.  This fundamental difference in how communication works is why, some 17,000 years later, Literacy Connections of Wayne County is so vitally important, and relevant as we celebrate our great nation’s birthday. 

We no longer draw pictures of events; we now draw mutually agreed upon symbols that make up our chosen language.  The power of understanding the meaning of these symbols, these letters as we know them, is unprecedented in human history.  Leaders both cherish and fear information contained in a page full of letters.  During the Antebellum period of American history (roughly 1783-1861) laws were passed prohibiting entire categories of people from possessing the knowledge of understanding a page full of letters.  Less than 200 years ago, right here in our own state, it was illegal to teach or to be taught if you were of a certain category. These laws stemmed from the reality that through the passing of pages full of letters from person to person came the exchange of ideas.  With ideas, perspective comes to society, and with perspective comes motivation.  With motivation comes action, and possibly change. It was not through accident or ignorance that these laws were changed, leaving these antiquated philosophies relegated to the past.  Democracy is truly a full-contact endeavor. 

In 2019 Literacy Connections of Wayne County serves to assist anyone with the desire to learn to read free of charge to the student.  We are fortunate to have the complete support of the City of Goldsboro and the County of Wayne.  Today we are endorsed, supported, and held accountable to ensure that we are assisting those who need us.  With all of the challenges that we have faced as a country, today we are in a place where, through politics of various means, we are charged with the good work of pushing our entire community to the level of understanding those little symbols. It is our goal that everyone be able to exchange pages full of letters and explore ideas through communication. Literacy Connections of Wayne County exists because of the values that are most central to our American democratic ideals.  This July, consider the path that brought us here.  Gain some perspective.  Be grateful that we have this country where we can participate and forge its improvement. 

Be grateful for the most powerful tool you possess and remember the centuries of effort it has taken to ensure that an organization like Literacy Connections of Wayne County can exist.  Happy 4^th!