Sunday, October 12, 2008

Today's Readers Are Tomorrow's Leaders

In the loveliest town of all, where the houses were white and high and the elm trees were green and higher than the houses, where the front yards were wide and pleasant and the back yards were bushy and worth finding out about, where the streets sloped down to the stream and the stream flowed quietly under the bridge, where the lawns ended in the orchards and the orchards ended in fields and the fields ended in pastures and the pastures climbed the hill and disappeared over the top toward the wonderful wide sky, in this loveliest of all towns Stuart stopped to get a drink of sarsaparilla. - Stuart Little, EB White.

I love it when friends and family take the time to read to me. And while most of it is of the ABC and 123 variety, they also read older kids’ books and occasionally books meant for adults. Dad tells me that the more I like being read to now, the more I will like to read when I finally learn. I keep trying to beg him to teach me now, but like many things, he doesn’t understand me. I cope by chewing on as many books as possible.

I am happy for now just listening, even though sometimes I surrender to sleep before they are through. But know that if you are reading to me and I doze off, I am not commenting on your inability to grasp Seuss’ intricate rhyming schemes. It just means I want to better imagine the worlds and characters in the books until I can read about them myself. So until someone finally relents to my pleas for reading lessons, I’ll listen as much as I can, and am happy with just about anyone who wants to take the time to read to me.

3 comments:

Kate said...

I'll read to you as soon as you learn how to talk on the phone!!!!

David McManus said...

Wow, I'm impressed. You are without question the smartest, most intelligent and the most astute 7 month old, I have ever known. At this rate I expect you to be at Harvard by the time you are 8 years old. Can you give me a hand with my Calculus?

Joan said...

I am currently reading you the story of Paddington. And in many ways the story of this little bear from darkest Peru is your story. Although you did not arrive as a stow away on a boat, nor have you even tasted marmalade let alone keeping a jar of it with you at all times, you do have that I’m a stranger here and everything is new to me thing going on. And Paddington gets himself in trouble all the time, running over baths and knocking over displays in store windows. Your exploits are much less dramatic, pulling our hair and wanting to chew on electrical cords but again you have those leanings to big trouble.

I love Paddington (and you too, by the way) and I love reading it too you. You seen very excited by the story but I must say I look forward to the day when you don’t crinkle the pages and chew on the dust jacket.