A Look Back

As I watch my grandkids join the readers of the world, I find myself taking a bit of a look back to the time when I became a part of that special "club".  As I remember it now, I at first spent a great deal of time with Raggedy Ann and Andy.  Then came the Dick and Jane books at school followed by series of adventures with Nan and Bert Bobbsey and of course -- the mystery solving Nancy Drew. Oh how I loved to read.  Still do, actually.  

The thing is... although I come from a family of readers, I think that I began to truly cherish books when I was a young, knobby kneed eight-year-old who was just starting third grade in a school new to me at that time.  I was finding my way through all the changes and the making of new friends, etc. when I heard about a teacher on the other side of the building who would loan you a book to read. I heard that she had an entire shelf of books set aside just for kids to borrow.  Imagine that.  Eventually I found my way to that side of the building and worked up enough courage to knock on her classroom door after school one day and the relationship began.  She taught me to treasure books.  I remember her kindness so well. She would help me select just the right book and I would watch her carefully place it in a large manila envelope that she would then fold around the book to protect it even more. (There were no paperbacks in that day.) Then after a brief conversation about caring for the book and enjoying it, I was on my way.  I made the trip to her room many times over the next three years.  

Funny that I never made the connection before this exact moment....  But... when I was a teacher at the senior high school level, I had students build me shelving that was attached to the wall underneath the chalk boards in the front of my homeroom. I kept the shelves stocked with books to lend -- to students and teachers as well.  It wasn't that we didn't have a wonderful library in the school, but there is something about borrowing a book from from a reading shelf that is special. I often found that if a students found one book to like, they would come back for another and then another. A non-reader would painlessly become a reader. It was a world of words that I wanted to share. A lot of the time, books would leave and not come back -- I would hear later that everyone in a family had read the book and then it turned up missing or something to that effect.  I stopped keeping track of who had what book.  It didn't matter.  What mattered to me is that someone was reading -- maybe even joining the readers of the world - that special club. Sometimes students even brought in books to place on that shelf to share with others. The shelf took on a life of its own. 

When I retired, I left the book shelves full.  Hope the "stock" continues to rotate.