Writing About Reading Day 1 - The Many Faces of Reading

Welcome to day one of Writing About Reading. The theme for today at Share a Story - Shape a Future's It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader is The Many Faces of Reading.

Here are Terry's writing prompts/questions for the day:

1.    What is the book from your childhood you can't wait to share with a child and why?

As much as I read when I was a child, I think most of the books I can't wait to share with children have come from my experiences as an adult working in a library. (This probably has something to do with my horrible memory.) Books that I can remember loving as a child include the American Girl series and Harry Potter. Having presented storytimes as an adult, my favorite experiences of sharing with the children have come from books by Mo Willems and Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. If you can relax enough to not care about looking silly, Mo Willems's books can be very entertaining, and Tacky the Penguin can be a subtle vocabulay builder and a great exercise opportunity if you try to "show" children how Tacky likes to march.

    2.    Who is the person who influenced you most as a reader?

I moved to Florida when I was three and my mom started taking me to the library for storytimes. From age three to thirteen-ish, I would go to storytimes (early years) and other programs (8-13ish) by "Miss Melissa" (coincidentally my supervisor now is also a "Miss Melissa"). I would have so much fun at storytimes, I would take home the 10 books my mom allowed me to check out at a time, sit on a stool, and present my own storytime to either a group of stuffed animals or imaginary friends. I would say, therefore, that Miss Melissa had a great influence on me as a reader, but if it hadn't been for my mom I never would have got to the library in the first place.

    3.    Do you have any special reading-time rituals for reading aloud with kids?

I'm a little confused as to what is meant by "rituals", but as far as warming up or anything, I do not have any rituals. I am, however, very OCD when planning my storytimes. I would love to be able to use books, songs, flannel stories, a game, and a movie, but if they don't all somehow fit our weekly theme, I won't use them. This is probably best for my sanity anyway, because trying to get large groups of kids through all of those activities in an hour or less before our next group comes in, would probably be pretty difficult.