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
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
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!"
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