Assignment 1 Kim MacDougall

My earliest memories of reading consist of my Mom and Dad reading books to me like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff, Twas The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clark Moore, and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. My parents would read to me every night before I went to bed. My favorite book as a child was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff. After being read the book on numerous occasions, I eventually memorized it and would pick it up myself and pretend I was reading. This past year I worked at the ASU Child Development Center. I would often sit with the three year old children and read to them and sometimes they would pretend to read to me. It reminded me of how I memorized books as a child and thought that I was reading them as I flipped through the pages and quoted the books.

Throughout elementary school I loved to read. I read the entire Boxcar Children series of children’s chapter books. I also read the Nancy Drew Notebook series of mysteries. I would often stay awake long past my bedtime at night to finish a good book. I know that many of my teachers read aloud to the class growing up, but there are not specific books that stand out in my mind that we read. When I was in fourth and fifth grade I was paired up with a kindergarten or first grader to be reading buddies with. A few times a month we would meet during the school day and I would read aloud and let them try to read to me. I really enjoyed having someone to read to and I felt like I was teaching them and able to help them out in their reading.

In middle school and high school my love for reading faded. We were required to read books that I wasn’t interested in and I stopped reading books for fun. During my senior year of high school I read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and rediscovered my love for reading. When I am interested in a book I don’t want to put it down, just like I had experienced in elementary school. I now have a big list of books that I want to read and am slowly working through it. The next couple books on my list are My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult and Crazy Love by Francis Chan.