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It’s that wonderful time of year… across America, schools are letting out for the summer and children (and parents!) are looking for other ways to fill the long hot summer days. Camp? Swimming and sports? Picnics and barbecues? When I was a child, summer meant hours spent at our neighborhood lake, evenings catching fireflies outside our house, and signing up for the summer reading programs at our local library. It’s nice to see that those programs are still around – the local libraries here have summer reading games that offer prizes to encourage children to enjoy reading outside of school.
I’ve never needed extra encouragement to read – you can find me at the library at least once a month, and I can get lost in a bookstore any time. And while I’ll read almost any genre of books, fantasy and science fiction books have always been my favorites. My dad read Dr. Seuss books to us at bedtime (we especially loved the secret world discovered in Horton Hears a Who!). When I was older, Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series was appealing because I was wistfully hoping that I’d wake up one day to discover that I had magical powers (sadly, that never worked out for me). And yes, there were books about that long before Harry Potter! There is something so exciting about escaping to an imaginary world or seeing our own world through a new perspective - that is one of the greatest things about reading.
I could go on and on about my favorite books, which is part of what inspired me to become an elementary school teacher. In my fourth grade classroom, I dedicated 20 minutes after lunch each day to reading aloud. We started the year with Where the Red Fern Grows (so sad) by Wilson Rawls, moved on to clever re-interpretations of fairy tales in Patricia Wrede’s Dealing with Dragons, and read stories such as Cheaper by the Dozen that transported us to earlier times. Inspiring children to find joy in a book and immerse themselves in a different world is one of the most wonderful parts of being a teacher.
I hope you have plans to inspire everyone in your family to read this summer. Check out your local library or visit the Collaborative Summer Library Program online for more resources for adults and kids. My own reading list is always growing!
I’ve never needed extra encouragement to read – you can find me at the library at least once a month, and I can get lost in a bookstore any time. And while I’ll read almost any genre of books, fantasy and science fiction books have always been my favorites. My dad read Dr. Seuss books to us at bedtime (we especially loved the secret world discovered in Horton Hears a Who!). When I was older, Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series was appealing because I was wistfully hoping that I’d wake up one day to discover that I had magical powers (sadly, that never worked out for me). And yes, there were books about that long before Harry Potter! There is something so exciting about escaping to an imaginary world or seeing our own world through a new perspective - that is one of the greatest things about reading.
I could go on and on about my favorite books, which is part of what inspired me to become an elementary school teacher. In my fourth grade classroom, I dedicated 20 minutes after lunch each day to reading aloud. We started the year with Where the Red Fern Grows (so sad) by Wilson Rawls, moved on to clever re-interpretations of fairy tales in Patricia Wrede’s Dealing with Dragons, and read stories such as Cheaper by the Dozen that transported us to earlier times. Inspiring children to find joy in a book and immerse themselves in a different world is one of the most wonderful parts of being a teacher.
I hope you have plans to inspire everyone in your family to read this summer. Check out your local library or visit the Collaborative Summer Library Program online for more resources for adults and kids. My own reading list is always growing!
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