morrigirl | The Early Book Meme

1. How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you?

I have two strong memories of learning to read.

The first took place in Ms. Kaufman's kindergarten classroom when I was 5. I remember we had progressed to the point where we were regularly getting handouts with simple sentences on them to take home and read with our parents for homework. I also remember being absent the first several days of this new venture and by the time I returned to class everyone was so far ahead of me I felt totally lost. Since I hadn't been around on the first days I hadn't been taught any of the basic skills like sounding out a word, or how to recognize simple words like "I" and "the." And in a classroom of 40+ students Ms. Kaufman had no time to sit down and go over all of it with me. So, for a while there I was in panic mode. Everyone else was getting it and I had no idea how to even start.

We had these workbooks in which sentences would be interspersed with pictures. For instance, you would see a sentence that read "I like" followed by a picture of a carrot. I remember sitting in class one day desperately trying to figure out the page Ms. Kaufman had assigned for reading. There were only two sentences on it and I couldn't decode them to save my life. Now, I don't remember if anyone helped me with it, but I recall a distinct moment when the sentences came together and suddenly made sense. They said something like, "I like my" *insert picture of bed here*. "I am going to" *picture of bed*. And I was just beside myself! All of a sudden I could READ! I was all bouncy and happy! at the time, my mother worked as a fundraiser for my school and when she came in to work, would often drop by my classroom just to see how I was and to talk to Ms. Kaufman, who had also been my brother's kindergarten teacher. She popped her head into the classroom just as I had figured out the bed sentences, and I jumped out of my seat, ran over with the book and read the page to her in amazement. She was very proud, and gave me a hug.

That's a nice memory, but I suspect I figured out how to "read" that page based on memorization. I heard others read it and I remembered what words were supposed to be on the page, and simply recited them back. I didn't have a firm understanding of how words look, that certain letter combinations make specific words. Beyond that one moment I have no recollection of reading with any ease that year.

But then came first grade, and THAT'S when shit started to sink in. On the very first day of first grade, the teacher, Ms. Larva, had everyone take out a piece of paper and a pencil and copy the words she wrote on the board. The first word was "I." She explained that "I" referred to the person who was speaking or writing. Then she wrote the word "can." She explained that "can" could have two meanings, and that in this instance it meant "to be able to" and not a contained that you put things in. And...that was the first time I really understood that words are symbols for actual things and ideas. I understood that specific words looked and felt different when you wrote them. And...I just got it! After that, reading was never a problem for me. Spelling on the other hand....

2. Did you own any books as a child? If so, what’s the first one that you remember owning? If not, do you recall any of the first titles that you borrowed from the library?

The first book I remember reading or having read to me as a child was this squishy bath book I took into the tub with me every night. It was maybe six or eight pages long, and there was a picture of one cartoon character in each page along with his name. So there was Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. I had my mom read it to me so many times, pretty soon I could recite it from memory.

My mother was very fond of the George and Martha books a friend had given me for my birthday one year, so she read those to me a lot. I also loved the Francis books, Amelia Bedelia, and Eloise in Paris, a copy of which I found in my mother's room one day, and later found out had been hers as a child.

3. What’s the first book that you bought with your own money?

It was probably either a book from The Baby-Sitters Club series, which me and all my friends read voraciously, or a title from the Sweet Valley High series, which none of us read but all bought because we thought they were somehow cool.

4. Were you a re-reader as a child? If so, which book did you re-read most often?

No, I never re-read books as a child, and I rarely do today. The first book I ever re-read was Flowers in the Attic when I was 12 or 13. Most recently I re-read the Walter Kirn novels "Thumbsucker, (before going to see the movie because I wanted to refresh my memory so I could see how the story had been modified for the big screen) and "She Needed Me," ( in order to see if it deserved to remain on my top ten list of favorite books. It did.)

5. What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it?

I could say Flowers in the Attic, which I read when I was 12. But I don't really consider that an adult book since the only people who read V.C. andrews are teens and pre-teens. I've yet to meet any adult who can take those books seriously, myself included.

So, I will say "Rush" by Kim Wozencraft which I read when I was 13 after having fallen in love with the movie. "Rush" remains my favorite book on the planet simply because Kim Wozencraft (at least in her early stuff) had such an engaging writing style. It was clear and direct, and at the same time, lyrical. It's the story of two crooked under cover narcotics agents who become addicted to drugs. Then, as now, I was not a fan of drug narratives. I found them self-indulgent and boring. But "Rush," even while being slowly paced, was riveting! Kim Wozencraft was able to get me interested in a story about something I normally hated to read about, and I thought that was incredible.

6. Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult? Which ones?

Hmmm, no I don't think so. My tastes have remained consistent.