I know I read books before second grade. I have photos to prove it. For some reason, every literary memory I have before the second grade is of my mother reading me books.
At 7:55 pm every night, my sister and I would sprint up the stairs to brush our teeth before our bedtime story. After brushing our teeth, way too quickly to get to our bedtime story quicker, we sprinted across our upstairs hallway to the room my sister Eve and I called the “playroom.” We hopped onto the couch to yell readyyy, the signal that my mom should head upstairs to read to us. Each night, the book was one of the same: The Berenstain Bears. The plot was the same each night, and we often had our mother re-read our favorite books of the series. The main characters, brother and sister bear, went about their day, one of them encountered conflict, and then the conflict is resolved at the end through a lesson learned for brother and sister bear. These books were made enticing through my mother’s storytelling, the elaborate drawings, and the relatability of the characters.
As I got older, my mother transitioned from picture books to the Chronicles of Narnia. The specific set we were using was the exact set that her dad read to her when she was a child. She felt it was part of her duty as a mother to read them to her children too. I could read by the time she started reading me the Chronicles of Narnia, but there was something inherently special about her reading them to me. Because I was still young, I didn’t understand some of the motifs and symbols that C.S. Lewis incorporates.
Before getting to Narnia, however, right at the moment my sister and I were born, my mom started us on our religious journey. While we were young and did not grasp nearly all of what we were being told at the time during church, I vividly remember my mom connecting Narnia to Christianity. Aslan, the wise lion, was representative of God, and C.S. Lewis was actually a Christian himself.
Unsurprisingly, not too long after, I received my first bible ever from Sunday school. It was called a ‘hands-on’ bible and was clearly geared towards children with engaging pictures, more colorful pages, and the text in the NLT (New Living Translation).
From that point on, my mom became less involved in my reading, but the Chronicles of Narnia and fond memories of her warmth as I sat listening to her read tales of the Berenstain Bears are vivid memories to this day.
My mother read to me many years ago aside, I am a very self-directed person. I did, however, take one of my dad’s book recommendations. He recommended I read Harry Potter. To this day, I think I have read that series, finding new details each time, upwards of fifteen or more times. I do not know what I found so appealing about Harry Potter, but those books were my first true love for reading books myself. Previous to that, reading was something I did at school once in a while. Maybe I read the book required to get the Kane County Cougars ticket, or whatever the case may be. Harry Potter allowed me to find a new love for reading that extended beyond school and started to take up lots of my free time.
I remember reading in my family room, upstairs in a comfortable chair, and not wanting to come down for dinner because I was in the middle of a chapter. Even when the chapter was done, I thought maybe I can finish one more before I get yelled at.
My love for reading persisted throughout elementary school, permeated into middle school, and died in high school. I can say with great confidence that more than seventy-five percent of the reading I have done since junior high school has been assigned or something that was highly recommended. I have done little to no reading “for pleasure” or for my own enjoyment in years.
When I think about why that is, I always think about a busier schedule in high school with more homework, more- involved sports, and a variety of other thoughts. The reality is, reading is not my primary source of entertainment or something I find myself doing when I have free time. My priorities have changed now, but I don’t think I will ever forget my mother reading to me as a child and I will always remember a shocking amount about the Harry Potter series.
Currently as a senior in high school, I plan to start reading just a little bit more and work my way up to a considerable amount more. It won’t be novels like I used to read, but rather simple reading more for the sake of being better informed. Investment, financial strategy, and philosophy books are on my horizon, but they may be in the form of e-books or podcasts as the world has shifted away from paperbacks. Whatever the case may be, the reader I am today, even if it was many years ago, was definitely influenced by my mom and my dad.
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Hey Chris,
I really enjoyed this post; I think the ideas you touched upon with family are really insightful and roped me into the narrative.
The opening story of reading with your mom and sister is simple but sweet. I’ve had similar moments with my mom and brothers, and while cuddling up with my family in one bed is less practical now that we’re grown, I sometimes wish I could go back to these times. Also, it sounds like your mom is an animated reader. A knack for storytelling is something I pride myself on when reading aloud, but reading to myself tends to ruin your magic; it sounds like I should’ve had your mom read me The Namesake this summer.
The concept of imparting values through literature is a notion that deserves to be unpacked. It sounds like your parents used different texts to teach a variety of lessons, whether they meant to or not. I fondly remember reading the Berenstein Bears and hearing the morals at the end, as well as the Bible and unpacking all the messages therein. But even Harry Potter sounds like it had a profound impact on your life. Your parents might not have read it to you and explained a moral, but even recommending it allowed you to develop your sense of independence and drive to finish the task at hand, whether it be winning baseball tickets or just finishing the chapter before dinner.
I’m really impressed by how you were able to craft such a well-developed narrative while also tying in so many deep lessons about family dynamics. Literature is powerful in that nature; it unites different people from different backgrounds in a shared experience and conveys important lessons about how we live our lives. I look forward to hearing more from you this year.
Thanks for the great post!
Tyler
Hello Chris,
I enjoyed reading this post about the influence of your parents on reading books in your life. I had no such experience but I also enjoyed books like Harry Potter and other similar series. The story of your mom reading to you and your sister almost sounds exactly like me recalling my mom doing the same thing for my younger twin brother and sister who probably do have a similar story unlike me. Your skill at telling a story is rather good and I also found it interesting how your mother would try to tie the books she was reading into Christianity and religion. It seems like an efficient way to get young children who love books to interest themselves in religious readings. Your mom tried to teach you about important values through the use of books which almost feels similar to something I once went through in Junior High. I like the narrative you built here while incorporating the use of family to teach your readers a lesson on the importance of the effects of family on reading.
Hey Chris, One of the main 2 things about your literacy narrative that stood out to me was the level of importance reading had to you as a kid. I related a lot to your description of how you went from being encouraged by your parents to learn to read with kids books to reading complex novels throughout elementary and middle school for your own enjoyment. This mainly related to me because I also had pretty much the same experience when I was younger because my parents also read to me aloud, and I began reading a lot of advanced novels during elementary and middle school. The second piece of your narrative which stood out to me and related to me was when you described how you began to stop reading as much for your own pleasure when you started high school, and also how you felt that certain readings you have been forced to do throughout English classes has caused you to enjoy reading for pleasure less. I especially related to this because I have pretty much stopped reading for pleasure entirely since high school has started, and I also feel that because we have had to read and overanalyze books so much for school reading has become a less enjoyable entertainment source.