Comments on: What is the What

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:19:16 +0000

Wasn’t Charlotte’s Web one of Mom’s favorites?
I remember May 15, 1991 very well. We were so happy to have a grandchild at last–albeit in our old age. Happy 17th Ian.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:21:43 +0000

Great story! When I was growing up, we continued the reading aloud tradition on a daily basis, well into our teen years. Every night after dinner we read from a book while having our dessert. And on long car trips, frequently someone would read aloud (I remember reading a lot of HP Lovecraft, then!). As an adult, reading is a blissful solitary pursuit, but is even more wonderful when shared through discussion and even through reading aloud and listening. I hope you’ll let us know about the discussion generated once you’ve both finished!

By: Tracie in Tallahassee

Tracie in Tallahassee — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:17:41 +0000

Oh Jennifer – this brought back such wonderful memories of reading aloud to my two girls. I wonder if everyone has a “Goodnight Moon” story? I remember our favorite line was “a comb and a brush and bowlful of . . . ” to which my girls would yell as loud as they could “MUSH!!!!!”

When my oldest was about 5, I started reading the “Little House on the Prairie” books aloud at night. We lumbered through all 2 thousand of them, then started on the “Betsy-Tacy” series, followed by the “Betsy and Billy” series (a wonderul old set of books written in the 30′s that are sadly now out of print), capped off by the “Anne of Green Gables” series. Let me say that this took several years to accomplish, after which we started with the first Harry Potter book! At some point after that I mentioned something about the Little House books to my youngest daughter (just a baby when we started) who looked at me with wide eyes and said “I don’t remember those!” !!!!!!!! So . . . we started all over again!

We have also moved into the “Hey Mommy, you should read (fill in the blank)” phase and it is a nice one, although I have to admit that reading about teenage vampires in love (“Twilight” – but I’m thinking boys probably don’t go for that book) does make me long for those “Pat the Bunny” days.

Thanks for the memories!
Tracie

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:13:54 +0000

God, I’d almost forgotten about those awful Berenstain Bears books! They were impossible to read aloud.

There’s a whole new chapter at my house, too: my youngest son came home from college last week and handed me a book that he had just read. He’d liked it enough to write a paper on it for his English class, and said “Here, Mom — I’ll be interested in hearing what you think about this.” So I’ve started reading ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’, and am looking forward to talking about it with smart, thoughtful, articulate Joe.

By: jim crabb

jim crabb — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:46:21 +0000

Well written, the reading on rainy days is a current event in St Louis this spring. Glad to read of the nephews as readers. Love Jim