Think Back...

My earliest memory of reading is Hooked on Phonics. My mother was really concerned that I would be behind in school, so we would "work" with that everyday when I was in preschool. I remember that I hated it and it really turned me off to reading. It wasn't excited or fun to have every reading experience be work and there was a constant push to know more that I didn't really like. I enjoyed listening to books and being read to. My father used to read a book to me about a cat that got lost at sea and found his way back home. I can't remember what it was called, but I must have heard it a million times. I loved stories, but not reading them myself, it was a struggle.
When I started school reading was still a struggle, but it came a little easier by 3rd grade. I remember Mrs. Rumple had a real push for accelerated reader and discovering reading as an individual. Also, she would have us read novels in her class, each student would read a paragraph out loud and we would do a chapter or so a day. We read a novel called Beauty. It was about a boy and his horse. He loved his horse and the story captured his happiness, but at the end the horse was killed in a storm. I remember crying so hard they called my mom to pick me up early. That was the first time I allowed myself to enter a story so completely that it truly affected me. I felt his sadness and I finally understood what it was to read a story and let it become part of you. I have been an avid reader ever since. I go through about a book a week and I enjoy all types of novels, but romances are my favorite.