I love to read!
By the time I was 12 years old, I'd read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Roots and Queen. Around this time, we were living within walking distance of the public library and it was my favourite place to spend an afternoon. My home life was far from ideal, and there was nothing better than the escape of a good book. I'd return home with stacks of books, ignore my siblings and find a corner to cuddle up and drift off into another world.
My original copy of Sammy the Seal (way overdue from the library) is now in my daughter's possession. When I started this blog, she graciously allowed me to borrow it. I thought it only fitting that Sammy the Seal be my first review on this blog.
I'm hoping this blog will heighten my reading pleasure by giving me a reason to pause and think about the books I'm reading.
Now that you know a little about me, I hope you'll be a regular visitor. Please leave comments, whether you agree or disagree with me, I want to know about. One of the things I love most about reading is the learning opportunities. I'm hoping to learn a few things from this blog.
I remember the first book I read all by my lonesome... It was a cold winter day in 1987 (possibly January or February), I was enrolled in my second year of grade two, and homesick with chicken pox. I wasn't allowed to spend the week watching TV, and I was too itchy to be trusted to play on my own without scratching the little red blotches that covered 85% of my body.
Syd Hoff's Sammy the Seal was home with me from the school library. So, sitting in a chair in the living room, while my mom watched the soaps, I sounded out and struggled until I could read the entire 64-page book (most of the pages have one or two sentences and huge illustrations). By the end of that week, I was able to 'read' that book with my eyes closed. That's one of my first experiences with struggle and success. Being able to read Sammy the Seal on my own gave me the confidence to tackle other challenges in my young academic life. I have no doubt that my love of reading saved me from some of the dangerous activities that could have seduced a child being raised by a young, single, immigrant mother on welfare.
Syd Hoff's Sammy the Seal was home with me from the school library. So, sitting in a chair in the living room, while my mom watched the soaps, I sounded out and struggled until I could read the entire 64-page book (most of the pages have one or two sentences and huge illustrations). By the end of that week, I was able to 'read' that book with my eyes closed. That's one of my first experiences with struggle and success. Being able to read Sammy the Seal on my own gave me the confidence to tackle other challenges in my young academic life. I have no doubt that my love of reading saved me from some of the dangerous activities that could have seduced a child being raised by a young, single, immigrant mother on welfare.
By the time I was 12 years old, I'd read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Roots and Queen. Around this time, we were living within walking distance of the public library and it was my favourite place to spend an afternoon. My home life was far from ideal, and there was nothing better than the escape of a good book. I'd return home with stacks of books, ignore my siblings and find a corner to cuddle up and drift off into another world.
My original copy of Sammy the Seal (way overdue from the library) is now in my daughter's possession. When I started this blog, she graciously allowed me to borrow it. I thought it only fitting that Sammy the Seal be my first review on this blog.
I'm hoping this blog will heighten my reading pleasure by giving me a reason to pause and think about the books I'm reading.
Now that you know a little about me, I hope you'll be a regular visitor. Please leave comments, whether you agree or disagree with me, I want to know about. One of the things I love most about reading is the learning opportunities. I'm hoping to learn a few things from this blog.
