Learning to Want to Read

[gurdonark]

My theory is that during childhood, we have two crucial sets of books in our lives. The first set is the set to which we are exposed when we are small--in my life that would be the Seuss books, and in particular Green Eggs and Ham. These books are entertainments, rather than true incitements to literacy.

But it's the second set of books about which I frame this post. My notion is that when one is just pre-literate, then one is exposed to a book or books that make one want to learn to read. In particular, one wants to learn to read so that one can read the books in question, rather than being merely a passive listener.

In my life, those books are the Hardy Boys mysteries. My mother used to read them to my brother and I when we were in the 5 to 6 year old age bracket. We could hardly wait to learn to read so that we could read them for ourselves. In fact, we did just that--learn to read and then began knocking off Hardy Boys (as well as Tom Swift, the Bobbsey Twins, the Happy Hollisters, and, in my case, slightly later, even the old Frank Merriweather series).

I'm curious, though, what was the "second set" of books in each of your lives? What books made you want to learn to read? What books made you begin to think of books as less an entertainment to be read to you by an adult, than as a reason to learn to read in your own right?

Comments

[coollibrarian.livejournal.com]

goodness there's a huge list for me: it includes the Little House on the Prairie series, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boyx, Trixie Belden, Judy Blume...

How's Trix?

[kelquestor.livejournal.com]

It was Trixie Belden for my (elder) brother too, I think. He used to buy them "for me". I really enjoyed those, but they weren't my 'second set'.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Those Little House books were always being read to us in school--very interesting stuff, and in particular that sense of "life as it is lived".
I never read Trixie Belden, though! Judy Blume did not become "big" until after I became bigger than a child.

[burninggirl.livejournal.com]

Would you believe I'm rereading the Little House books right now? I'm enjoying them just as much as I did when I was younger, maybe even more so. I'm very distressed that I appear to be missing books #5 and #7, though, especially as I just finished book #4! : )

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I had wondered if the "Little House" books travelled, and also if you had different childrens' books that we don't know here.
It's too bad the Ingalls didn't move to Australia, as "Little House in the Outback", "Little House on a Whitsunday Island" and "Little House in Tasmania" would have been great fun.

[burninggirl.livejournal.com]

What a great concept! The closest I can suggest as the definitive Australian children's book series is the "Seven Little Australians" series, a series of about four books (though the first one could stand alone) about a family of seven children growing up in 19th century rural/bush Australia. Well worth a read if you ever came across it, though I don't think it's at all well-know outside Australia.

[cathla143.livejournal.com]

Mostly Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew for me... although I also liked to read stuff about the stars and planets. My friends and I walked to the library every week to check out books.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I loved astronomy stuff, too.
I believe that one can sort all people into Freddie/Flossie Bobbsey people or Frank/Nan Bobbsey people. I am definitely in the former camp.

[uscwriter.livejournal.com]

The Little House series, as well as Judy Blume books- particularly "Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing." My second grade teacher read it to us, and I remember wanting to read more of that.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I liked the Big Woods the best, altho the Prairie was good, too. I never read Tales of a 4th grade nothing, but I always liked the title.

Re:

[uscwriter.livejournal.com]

Oh- it's great- followed by Superfudge. Judy Blume is an extraordinary writer for young people. Get Tales and read it. Also, if you get in the holiday mood, get Barbara Robinson's book "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever." It's hilarious. I have a copy to read to dear daughter when she gets older.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

The best Christmas Pageant ever is a good story. I also like "A Christmas Story" even though my father would never get me a BB gun because I would shoot my eye out, but promptly got my nephew one last xmas!

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[uscwriter.livejournal.com]

That's my favorite Christmas movie...the leg lamp, the double dog dare, the meal at the Chinese place... makes me glad the holidays are upon us.

K

[starling321.livejournal.com]

That's easy. The Chronicles of Narnia

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

What enchanting books! But I was a bit older when I discovered CS Lewis--maybe 13 or 14.

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

Dr. Seuss books were forbidden in my house on account of him being a commie pinko and all. (NOT jking)--and I don't think there ever WERE any books that made me want to read. I never really read much at all as a kid. All I did was draw. That's all I wanted to do. Books with big illustrations were always preferable to the kind with just type.
Eventually I did begin to read just for pleasure. But it still never held a candle to drawing.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I liked pix books, too, but I never learned to draw. Dr. Seuss as commie is kinda funny :)

Re:

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

Dr.Seuss as a commie is ridiculous, just one of many tyrannies I lived under.

[insanity-burst.livejournal.com]

I would have to say the Encyclopedia Brittanica. I know that sounds insane, but they were always there right next to the kitchen. I would spend a good amount of time laying on the floor flipping through looking at all the pictures then eventually I spent a good time just laying around reading the books that were my favorite letters of the day. I would also have to say the Sweet Valley High series. My next jump after that was Stephen King at around age 9 or so. I think my parents had a screw or two loose. I finished IT when I was 10.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Britannica is so great. We did not get ours until I was over 10. But we did get World Book, which I read like mad almost as soon as I could read.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I don't remember my "second set" of books, but my mom used to tell the story that I piled a bunch of books at the door on my way to school for my first day of kindergarten, and was disappointed that I couldn't read when I came home. As soon as I DID learn to read, though, I was pretty nonstop. Yeah!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I love that story! I think that shows a spark!

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[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[woody77.livejournal.com]

Very amusing, your first/second were the same as mine. I had about a zillion Dr. Seuss books, and even still have a small book of "Seussisms" at work. I read all but a few of the Hardy Boys books, and ended up owning like 50-some of them.

My mother got me reading from an early age. I can't remember NOT being able to read. It's just been a constant in my life.

Later on it was sci-fi stuff about rockets, and stories of the "strange-but-true". I think I was a child of the late 50s/early 60s, somehow born in the late 70s... :) Either that, or my parents (born in the mid-fifties) gave me the same things to read as a little kid as they read as one.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I was born in 59, so I guess I was raised on the books on which your parents were raised.
I graduated to "late golden age" sci fi like Heinlein, Asimov, Silverberg, Saberhagen myself!
That's funny about our shared early tastes, though somehow I still feel old!

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[woody77.livejournal.com]

My parents had me really young, so don't feel too old. :)

I've also moved on to Asimov and Heinlein. But I also picked up a huge liking for L'Amour, due to my grandfather's extensive collection (all of his westerns). I grew up next door to him, so I was always borrowing his books as I got older (and a bit bolder, as he was an imposing guy).

[chaptal.livejournal.com]

I have no real memories of not being able to read. My parents got me a set of books of biographies of the presidents that I devoured. I don't remember if it stopped at Nixon or Johnson.

Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown series was something I always enjoyed reading.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Encyclopedia Brown was cool! But you must have learned early--I can still remember reading classes in school.

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[chaptal.livejournal.com]

No one can remember me learning. Strangest thing. I was about 18 months old and could barely talk. Because of my poor vision, Life magazines were put in my crib and I used to have them in my face looking at them.

[texastornado-91.livejournal.com]

My second set was probably the Nancy Drew books. I saw my sister reading them and had to read them for myself. Had I grown up many many years later, I could see them being the "American Girl" series. Those are some really great little books.

I remember we had two huge bookshelves on either side of the fireplace (yes, we even had fireplaces in Corpus Christi...don't ask me why...lol) that reached to almost the ceiling. They were full of picture books - not for children, but informative adult nonfiction picture books. The ones I remember most are the Reader's Digest North American Wildlife book (I'd look at it for hours) and this one about Natural Landmarks of the world. Maybe I could convince my parents to part with those two at Thanksgiving...heh heh.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I never read much Nancy Drew, but my deep suspicion is that she was deeper than Frank and Joe Hardy. I love picture books about nature--still do.

[babilary.livejournal.com]

I don't remember not reading. Mom used to read poetry to my brother and I. tiger, tiger, burning bright, in the forest of the night And I remember she read Robinson Crusoe, and The Jungle Book. It may have been Kipling. Or C.S. Lewis. I was reading before I went to school, and was bored to tears when we went over the alphabet. Actually, I remember writing & illustrating my first story in second grade about Marco Polo. I loved explorers.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I did not read until school, though I learned my ABCs a bit earlier. I remember poetry in those days as being ravens and village smithys standing under spreading chestnut trees. It wasn't until lately I realized that the "smithy" is not the "smith".

[babilary.livejournal.com]

ps. (you might have guessed my mom's a teacher). She has an illustration of a little dog by Dr. Suess that he sent her as a thank you to her third year class because they sent a story they'd written for him. So I remember Dr. Suess fondly. And don't forget Babar!!!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

That pic would be so cool to have! and nobody could forget babar, although we didn't really read him when I was a kid. I do remember a different storybook, though, in which little boys fell in a vat of gingerbread...always sounded like fun to me.

[gregwest98.livejournal.com]

Strange, I can't remember what that set of books was for me. My mother loved to tell the story of my first day at school during which I didn't go out for recess; apparently I told the teacher that I hadn't come to play - I had come to learn to read and was ready to get on with it. So, I was an avid reader from the beginning but I can't remember what my motivational series was. I read everything in my path.

[babilary.livejournal.com]

ha! Yes, I have a similar tale my mom loves to relate. I guess the first day of kindergarden the teacher was showing the class all the different "stations" & I really liked one of them. He came over to say the class was moving on to the next station & I shook my head & told him I was busy.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You always had a bit of "that drive", didn't you?

[epanastatis.livejournal.com]

Good question, but impossible for me to answer. By the time I was two years old, well before my earliest clear memory, I was already reading. When I was three, also before my first clear memory, I had already learned to read a second language in a different alphabet (Greek). I've always lived in a world of intelligible text.

Based upon my mother's anecdotes, the incitement text may have been The New York Times.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Very impressive, and the Times a muse is somehow fun to think on...

[kenmora.livejournal.com]

I'm almost embarrassed to say, but there was a series of "Partridge Family" mystery books (yes, based on the TV show). They were actually very good (to my 10 year old mind anyway). I took refuge in them, taking them to school and hanging out with no one, just reading. When I went through all they had in the bookstore, I actually ordered them directly from the publisher (I believe 15 in all).

From there it was straight to Edgar Rice Burroughs, then H.P. Lovecraft, Then Poe, then Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

C'mon get happy! I loved Heinlein, Bradbury and Asimov. I think my teen years taught me to love plot and light action, as even my "serious" novels then--"Oliver Twist", "Great Expectations", all involved lots of both.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

I taught myself to read when I was about three and a half because I wanted to do everything my older brother was doing. He had a book called Seventeen Cousins, as I recall, and I went over and over and over that book until I knew all the words. From there it was but a hop, skip and jump to gems such as Hubert: The Caterpillar Who Thought He Was a Mustache.

When I was four and my brother was six, my grandmother came over to stay awhile. She offered to read to us. My brother and I joyously ran to her with our favorite current selection: How Babies Are Made. She was old-skool, my grandmother, but she swallowed her fluttering and read it to us like a champion.

My favorite period of reading is probably 8-13. I read more and better stuff then than at any other time. One would think my entire reading life was leading up to those formative years, which shape me even now.

O what a fine question!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you about how important 8 to 13 reading is.
I'm also amused at how much "heavier" I tended to read as a late teen than I do now. I still will tackle a serious novel now, but
then I would tackle the most wordy and abstruse....well, not quite, actually, as I have never had too much interest in some forms of the modern novel....

[serendipoz.livejournal.com]

Oh what a fine question!

I agree!

I don't remember the Seuss books at all - or any similar ones, though they were likely the cardboard variety. My parents taught me to read from the Book of Knowledge (the encyclopedia), which I used for school reports later. They had evidently purchased a 'learning to read' book with clip out words to do this. (I was given the book and scattered paper words many years later with a comment about how they wished later they hadn't done so. I must have been three or so.

I do remember my favorite children's gift books - Now We Are Six and A Child's Garden of Verse - and the best books I borrowed (early) from the library - Midsummer Night's Dream and Princess of Mars (by the author of Tarzan I told my mother!) - and the first two books I purchased myself - The Grey Goose of Kildeven (Patricia Lynch) and A Puffin Book of Verse.

Now, of course, I have too many books and much too much paper.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Those Mars books were constant reading for me, from A Princess of Mars through the whole 10 book or so series. I loved them, even tho they had some shortcomings. I wonder how much my personal notions of "chivalry" come from Martian chivalry!

[the-outsider.livejournal.com]

Good observation and good question. Thinking back it was probably the "White Mountains" books by John Christopher for me. I even wrote him a fan letter when I was about 9...and he wrote a handwritten letter back answering some questions I had. So not only were the books interesting, but I got to see the human side of the author and see the real person behind the book, which made it more important for me because it wasn't some anonymous, faceless person writing it. It definitely made me want to read more.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I never read those books. I must check them out. I am amused how many "childrens books" I read and enjoy for the first time as an adult.