For the Love of Reading

Reading has always been one of my favorite pastimes. When I was a kid, I rarely went anywhere without a book. As a teen, I'd spend hour after hour in my room reading. My daughter, now in her 20s, followed closely in my footsteps. She was reading a healthy dose of sci-fi and fantasy novels while riding the bus to school. When JT came along, he was an early reader with a voracious appetite for more books than I could supply.

Then came EM. We read to all of our children, pretty much from birth...one of my favorite pictures is my husband with a newborn EM on his lap reading Dr. Seuss's ABC book. But when the time came for reading on his own, EM was reluctant. In past posts I have discussed both his auditory processing problem and his intermittent exotropia and how those two issues may have contributed to his avoidance of reading. While he has made progress in the years since both diagnoses, he has never preferred reading over any other activity.

Then a couple months ago, we chose Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as our new bedtime read aloud book. My husband reads a chapter from a book to both boys during their snack time. He read aloud to our daughter until she was into her teens and will continue the tradition as long as the boys continue to listen. When we finished the first book in the series, EM decided he would try to read the next book on his own. He picked up a copy of The Chamber of Secrets at the library and finished it in less than 10 days!

Earlier this week, he was working on the grammar assignment pictured above. When he came to the question "Which book do you plan to read next?" he had an answer. I don't think EM had ever PLANNED what book he would like to read next before he discovered Harry Potter. Now, only two days after our trip to the library, EM is nearly 100 pages into The Prisoner of Azkaban. I don't know if this reading splurge will last beyond the final Harry Potter book, but for now I'm encouraged by the excitement EM is showing. When he finished reading The Chamber of Secrets on Monday night, he said to me, "What perfect timing. Tomorrow is library day so I can get a copy of the next book right away!"

And that was music to my ears.