Reading at a Young Age

If you follow this blog, it's a pretty safe bet you love books. i mean, I know we're hilarious and awesome and all, but you probably wouldn't have found us unless you're a YA fan. Unless you're related to us, of course.

But those of you who aren't our actual family are probably all YA readers. and not just readers, but big readers. And you've probably always had a love of reading.

I've been reading to my 3-month-old since she was a teeny tiny baby in the NICU. It's really fun to see the change in her during storytime.

In the NICU, she just slept while I read. Then when she was a few weeks old, she would be awake, but looking at me, not the pictures. At about 1 month, she started attentively staring at the pictures.

Around a month and a half, she started to seem to recognize the story if it was one we'd read several times before. She particularly loves "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Bill Martin and Eric Carle and "Shampoodle" by Joan Holub (shout out to Joan, who follows this blog! She actually giggles when we read this one!!!!). About that same time, she started tracking. When I would read her a story with both words and pictures on both pages of a two-page spread, she would look at the correct page at the right time. I know it's because she could see which page I was looking at, but still, that's kinda cool, you know?

Then around 2 1/2 months, she started grabbing the pages and trying her best to turn them for mommy. :)

A couple of weeks ago, we started going to "Babytime" at the library. It's baby storytime for babies under 12 months old. We sing songs, do lap bounces, finger play, and listen to stories. Let me tell you...30 babies, mommies, daddies, and nannies in a room is cuteness overload!

I love that she's already so interested in books, because that's such a huge part of who I am.



So what about you? Did you love books at an early age? What age did you learn how to read? What were some of your favorite books when you were little?

Favorite books as a kid

I used to devour books when I was a kid--I loved reading many, many different kinds of stories--horror (esp. Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine), romance, historical, mystery, family drama, etc. I don't know if I can think of one book in particular that stood out as an all-time fav, but here are a few that are still very memorable for me:

Homecoming by Cynthia Voight. I distinctly remember this one because the kids are traveling by themselves to reach a relative after their mom abandons them. And they have to ration their money by living off bread and peanut butter. I was riveted!

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I cried and cried and criiiiiied about those dogs. Seriously, I was a mess. That one scene stuck in my head for a long time.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I distinctly remember when I was reading this that I was drawn to Rochester. I couldn't help it--he was magnetic, and I loved and hated him for how he treated Jane. And I wanted poor Jane to finally get something good in her life. I loved all the crazy twists in the story!

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I remember being horrified that this was a real person's story...it moved me to hear about the trials and struggles she went through, hiding from the Nazis.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Another tear-jerker. I guess I was into those. But I was so caught up in the story, and the death totally floored me. I was NOT expecting it.

There are many, MANY more books I adored, of course, but right now I wanna hear from you. What were your favorite books when you were growing up?

Child's Play??

Like so many writers and avid readers, my childhood was filled with books. This week I've been working on a children's book that I promised to my nephew, Liam, who will be in first grade this fall. He, like his aunt before him, was too impatient to wait for the school system to teach him what those mystical symbols on the page were all about. He taught himself to read, and now spends his summer reading absolutely everything with gusto. He's close to a second grade level already, and can sit with a beginning book in his lap without any assistance. He knocked me off my feet about two weeks ago when, while sounding out words on the sports page of the Herald, he struggled for a few moments and then blurted out the word "intercollegiate."

Folks, I know college graduates who can't spell it, much less sound it out from the page.

So I promised him his very own book as a reward, and I'm working on it now. Since I intend to break every rule in the book to create it-- and since I don't know what I'm doing anyhow-- I'll self publish it.

You'd think that writing for children would be simple, since they are, right? The arrogance of that statement is why, I think, so many people find themselves stunned when they answer those crappy ads in magazines shouting "YOU CAN WRITE CHILDREN'S BOOKS." It's actually quite likely you can't. I've always been marginally aware that writing for younger people bears a greater responsibility. But until I sat down to pen something for beginning readers I'd never considered how much it took.

Try it. Write a sentence describing your sneakers. Use only vocabulary, sentence structure, and imagery a child of five to seven years can understand. It's not that simple. Now try to create a story rich enough to make a child who is being reared in technicolor HD magical boob-box-hood within the same parameters.

It makes me genuinely appreciate the absolute genius of Doctor Seuss, Maurice Sendak, and god-love-them, the people involved in Sesame Street.

I clearly remember the very first books I devoured, including Where the Wild Things Are, The Monster at the End of this Book, and everything Seuss. But like my nephew, I was quickly bored with anything that seemed to be addressing me as a child. I quickly moved on to slender, first novels. My teachers were not so much pleased as mortified to find me hunched over The Hobbit and Watership Down by second grade. They were probably right, too. I was intellectually fascinated but the darkness did frighten me, and I was most likely nowhere near emotionally ready.

Anyway, wish me luck on Liam's book. It's harder than I thought it would be, but I suspect I will be prouder of myself than I thought, too. This ain't child's play.