My first book

My assignment this week for my current grad class is to create a collage representing my past and present as a reader and writer. I wrote a little essay to go on the collage about the first book I read by myself and thought I'd share it here.

I remember quite clearly the day I read my first book. We’d been learning to read in school, and I loved it, but had never read a whole story all the way through. I was just too lazy; I got bored easily. My ENFP personality was shining through at an early age. I knew I had conquered reading, so why finish a whole book once I knew that I had the ability to read it? But this day, I knew something momentous was going to happen. I carefully considered my options and decided on a Dr. Suess book. I grabbed Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat and sat down to read. I remember reasoning that they were easy books, so I’d get through them quickly without any problems. After all, the purpose of this wasn’t to read for fun; it was to be able to proclaim that I’d read a whole, entire book all by myself. Also, I remember thinking that reading Dr. Suess books was something you were supposed to do. When people asked, I could proudly say that the first book I read was a Dr. Suess book, and that there would be a sense of rightness to that. I was going the Dr. Suess route because I knew that those books were written for beginning readers, not because I was actually interested.

I only got a few pages into Green Eggs and Ham before sighing in frustration and tossing the book aside. It was so boring and tedious! All those stupid rhyming words. It seemed so babyish. I had the same problem with The Cat in the Hat. What was I going to do?

I picked up Ernie’s Big Mess. I was not as confident in my ability to read this, but I LOVED Ernie. And the idea of his messy room was something I could relate to. Once I made that text-to-self connection, I knew this was going to be my first book. I couldn’t wait to see how Bert reacted to Ernie’s mess.

So I opened the book and began to read. And it was magic. The words just flowed from my mouth. The words I had been afraid of encountering actually weren’t hard at all; somehow, my brain just knew what they were. I didn’t feel like I was being patronized, the way I had with Dr. Suess. The story was hilarious; I couldn’t put the book down.

When I finished reading it to myself, I found my mom and read it to her. She congratulated me and said she was proud, but I was slightly disgruntled because I didn’t think she realized what a big deal this was to me. However, if she didn’t display the proper amount of enthusiasm, she did the next best thing- she supported me and encouraged me to keep reading. After that first book, I was insatiable. She took me to the library the next day and we brought home several bags of books. I still remember devouring Make Way for Ducklings and being embarrassed because she had to correct me when I pronounced the word island “is-land.”

Since reading Ernie’s Big Mess, I haven’t been able to stop reading. It’s not only one of my favorite things to do, it’s an addiction. I’m so grateful to Ernie and my mom for showing me the joy of reading.

P.S. I came across an awesome website, www.firstbook.org, on which you can share the first book that made you fall in love with reading. They have celebrities on there talking about their favorite books, and you can donate books to under-resourced kids.