One of my fondest memories is curling up on the living room sofa with my dad at the age of nine. We are opening the pages of Charlotte’s Web and I am listening to and exploring the world of the Zuckerman’s farm for the first time. I have taught that book, as well as read it, several times and it never fails to evoke that memory. Even catching a glimpse of the cover makes me smile.
This enjoyment of a story is something that I hope to pass on as a tradition to the Tomato. My father is an avid reader. He churns through 3 or 4 newspapers a day, pushes his vocabulary with the NY Times crossword puzzles and reads books of all genres from fantasy (Games of Thrones and Lord of the Rings) to history and economics (Moneyball and any Civil War book he can find). I was lucky enough to have inherited that passion for reading. I love to read mysteries (from Steig Larsson to any knitting mystery I can find – yes, stop snickering, there is more than one knitting mystery series), cookbooks (just reading recipes with words like parnsips makes me happy) and memoirs of folks who have ditched urban lives to live in the mountains (Jim Mullen and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, I heart thee). When I was a classroom teacher, I definitely had one of the larger, if not the largest, classroom libraries for my students. I hoped to pass on my passion of books to them and loved watching them crack open titles like Toys Go Out or The Main Street series for the first time. Since I purchased the books for my room, as many teachers do, they all came home with me two years ago when I had the Tomato, and therefore, she will have her very own K-5 library set up in the attic in the years to come.
I am happy to say that Tomato seems to be inheriting this reading fervor too. She reaches for books before anything else in the car, we curl up to read books and magazines (the girl loves to find all the fruits and veggies that she knows in our abundant pile of seed catalogs), and she loves to read them over and over again. To hear her complete lines of the text that we have grown to love fills me with such joy. Some books are being so “loved” that they have needed some repair via the glue gun for a broken binding on Owl Babies or tape on the pull tabs of Inside Freight Train. Those pictured above are some of her all time favorites. She learns not only the mechanics of turning the pages and listening to the cadence of our voices as we share these with her, but also the values of sharing and loyalty (Pooh Loves), comedic foibles (Hippos Go Berserk!) and the alphabet (as W stands for Wookie in Star Wars ABC). As a family, we curl up on the couch to read them together, stop anything we are doing when she toddles over with one grasped in her outstretched hand, and smile as she turns the pages, and points to and interacts with the pictures and characters. Also, we reminisce over how we read to her each night while she was in utero. I am thrilled to have passed the tradition of reading on to her and hope that she will one day pass it along to her little one too.
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Hello Becky,
Lovely post! I, too, love sharing the books I adored as a child, with my daughter. Both my husband and I saved books from our childhood that we’ve passed on to her–and I just feel awash with gratitude when she wants us to read them to her again and again. It’s fun to rediscover these books as well. I can re-inhabit my childhood in flashes, recalling the pictures or characters I liked the most.
I wanted to track you down and thank you–for reading through my posts and leaving the gift of your comments. I can’t tell you how touched I am by them. I am curious, how did you find my little blog–I do next to nothing to promote it! At any rate, its always nice to find someone who shares your values–I look forward to digging into your posts. I’ve always dreamed about gardening, but feel so intimidated by it. Perhaps you will inspire me!
All the best,
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
I am really enjoying your blog! I stumbled upon it via your neighbor, Judi, with whom I grew up. She thought that I would enjoy it since we have similar philosophies. Keep up the great posts, I love reading about your journey through parenthood!