On Booktube, Ashley and Steve have recently shared their personal history of reading and I would like to share my own literacy autobiography.
A Collector of Words
We are, by nature, collectors. We collect everyday items such as bread ties, plastic bags, peanut butter jars, plastic straws, and pie tins. Some people specialize in their collecting habits. Their collections include postage stamps, tropical fish, holiday sweaters, postcards, coins, musical CDs, comic books, antiques, glassware, autographs of famous and infamous people, shot glasses, and other interesting items.
I, too, am a collector. You will not be able to search through my possessions and find teaspoons from the fifty states, refrigerator magnets, or rubber band balls. What you will be able to locate among my most treasured possessions is something truly magical.
I am a collector of words. I love small words, big words, dull words, colorful words, intelligent words, silly words, funny words, scary words, loving words whispered by my wife, words that increase my faith, words that make me laugh, words that make me cry, words that make me think, words that make me passionate, words that touch me, words that others have written and words that I have written myself.
I love words that are finely crafted into imaginative sentences, forming cohesive paragraphs and wonderful stories. I love famous words spoken by famous people that I can use for inspiration.
My parents would tell you that my love for words has been a life-long passion; a passion that began in 1969 when I entered the first grade.
Miss Molly Burkett
In 1969, I entered the first grade at Porter Hopkins Elementary School, and was placed in Miss Molly Burkett’s class. The warm voice of Miss Molly made you feel loved and I would do everything that I could to please her.
Miss Molly’s first task was to teach the class about mysterious things such as short vowels, long vowels, and consonants. Once these were mastered we moved onto blends, schwas, and diphthongs, although I did not know they were called that at the time.
In Miss Molly’s room we learned how to assemble single letters into beautiful, meaningful words. Words like come and see, run and jump, mother and father, and Dick and Jane.
My eyes twinkled in amazement as Miss Molly gave me my very first Dick and Jane primer. It was filled with pictures and words that I could understand and read out loud. I enjoyed reading out loud to Miss Molly. She was always so reassuring, even when I stumbled at times.
I am thankful to Miss Molly for giving me the gift of literacy which created in me a lifelong passion for the written word.
Mrs. Clara Guffey
In the second grade I entered into the classroom of Clara Guffey. It was here that I was able to further develop my reading ability. Miss Guffey was a kind and patient teacher who made reading exciting.
I can vividly picture in my mind Miss Guffey’s classroom. Under the windows, and on top of a 3-foot high bookshelf that ran the entirety of the room, sat her collection of colorful SRA boxes. I would often go and lift up the hinged lid and select my next reading card. These cards were sorted by levels and it was very exciting to work from level to level and complete the boxes. You worked at your own pace and this enabled you to enter into competition with your fellow classmates. The cards had wonderful stories on the front and then you flipped to the back for vocabulary building and comprehension questions. The SRA boxes were very useful in enhancing my interest in reading.
I was also introduced to Weekly Readers and book fairs in Miss Guffey’s class. This was my first experience of purchasing books for my very own. Books that I could take home, write my name in, and add to a collection that has grown quite large over the years.
My parents worked very hard for their money but my mother always made sure that I had some pocket money so that I could order books from Weekly Reader and at book fairs.
Halfway through the year I learned that Miss Guffey had a second job in the evenings. She had made an appointment to meet with my parents to show them the newest World Book Encyclopedias. I remember her visiting our home and I was proud of this personal connection that I had with Miss Guffey.
My parents worked very hard as factory laborers, and money was not easy to come by, but before Miss Guffey had left that evening my parents had purchased not only a 1972 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia, but also a set of Childcraft – The How and Why Library.
I know my parents must have made many monthly payments on those encyclopedias. I certainly appreciate their sacrifice and investment in my learning.
The set of Childcraft was my favorite. Within the many volumes I was able to read about science, history, cultures around the world, Mother Goose rhymes, poetry, folk and fairy tales, and other adventures. I would sit for hours and read through my Childcraft. They were my constant companions.
Mrs. Hilma Prather
My most memorable reading experiences occurred when I entered the sixth grade classroom of Hilma Prather. Mrs. Prather became, and remains to this day, my most favorite educator. It was within her classroom that I truly learned to treasure the written word and draw great things from it. Mrs. Prather loved books and had a passion to share that love with all of her children.
Our classroom did not go out to the playground during the afternoon recess period. Instead, we sat on individual carpet squares, Mrs. Prather sat in her rocking chair, and she read amazing stories to us. It made such an indelible impression upon me that I can recall all of the titles that she read to us. I even recommend these timeless classics to my nieces and nephews.
My afternoons, during my sixth year, were spent with Harriet, spying on our neighbors and friends and recording things about them in our secret notebooks. I remember the sadness I felt when Harriet’s notebook was discovered and she was made an outcast. I had a very special kinship for Harriet because we both loved tomato sandwiches.
I escaped to the Metropolitan Museum of Art along with Claudia and Jamie as Mrs. Prather read to us out of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I still remember how Claudia and Jamie stood on the toilets at closing time to evade notice from the security guard.
I remember listening attentively as she read to us about a boy named Tom Sawyer and all of his many wonderful adventures.
My fondest memories come from My Side of the Mountain. This book told me about Sam Gibley, Frightful, and the Baron Weasel and how they all lived together in a hollowed out tree in the Catskill Mountains. This story was true adventure to my young mind.
These stories, and others, were shared with me by Mrs. Prather. She encouraged me in my reading and even suggested titles to me for my independent reading. Through her recommendations I was able to add books such as Where the Red Fern Grows, Cheaper by the Dozen, the Wind and the Willows, and The Cricket in Times Square to my reading experience.
I still treasure those many afternoons, sitting on a carpet square at Mrs. Prather’s feet, listening to fascinating pieces of literature. She impacted my life more than any other educator and to her I am deeply grateful for her special efforts to instill within me a love of reading
A Life in Books
C.S. Lewis, in Surprised by Joy, describes the idyllic life of all bookish people. He wrote,
“I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes, and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books. My father bought all the books he read and never got rid of any of them. There were books in the study, books in the drawing room, books in the cloakroom, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern attic, books of all kinds reflecting every transient stage of my parents' interest, books readable and unreadable, books suitable for a child and books emphatically not. Nothing was forbidden me. In the seemingly endless rainy afternoons I took volume after volume from the shelves. I had always the same certainty of finding a book that was new to me as a man who walks into a field has of finding a new blade of grass.”
Books have been my life-long passion. I am both a collector and a voracious reader.
I lived with my parents until I married at the age of 35. I had so many books by this time that my mother had one strict rule – I had to discard one book from my collection for every new book that I brought into the house. To solve this problem, I waited until she was asleep and then snuck them in during the middle of the night.
My wife welcomed my collection when we got married and established a home together. She is a reader as well. She permits me to make regular trips to Barnes and Noble, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, and library book sales. She understands and supports my addiction.
I am never without a book. It is either in my bag or within arm’s reach. In the car, it is close by on the backseat so that I may read at stop lights or while I am waiting on my wife to come out of Wal-Mart.
My favorite authors include: Silas House, Pat Conroy, Thomas Merton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Michael Chabon, J.K. Rowling, Leon Uris, Faye Kellerman, Elie Wiesel, James North Patterson, Herman Wouk, Chaim Potok, C.S. Lewis, Jan Karon, Eliot Pattison, Amy Tan, Edwidge Danticat, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Because of the support of Miss Molly, Mrs. Guffey, and Mrs. Prather, I have a strong drive and determination to pass onto others the gift of literacy. I suppose it if for that reason I entered the field of adult education. Nothing thrills me more except when one of my learner’s becomes a reader.
