Thursday, April 15, 2010

When reading was fun....

Don't get me wrong...I love reading. But when I was a kid, reading just seemed so much more fun (and time seemed so much more available!). I used to be a HUGE reader when I was younger...it is all I did. Remember all the Beverly Cleary books like HENRY AND THE PAPER ROUTE and BEEZUS AND RAMONA? I used to dig the "choose your own adventures" too. Today, being an English teacher, it is easy to see how we are clearly in the "Golden Age" of young adult literature. My friend Johnny is a youth librarian out in Nevada, and I have to say I am sometime jealous of his job; to be surrounded by books all day (well, I kind of am right now, but it is different) must be pretty neat.

When Johnny and I were in elementary and middle school, we were obsessed with all the "biographies" in our library....and there were plenty of them! We devoured information about George Washington, Abe Lincoln, John Paul Jones, David Bowie, JFK, and this guy....

My third grade teacher, Mrs Kenney, read this book to us aloud:

Do you remember this book? For a third grade kid, this book was hilarious. There were sequels like "Fudge," Superfudge," and, more recently, "Fudge Forever," which Judy Blume wrote for her grandkids (or so I have heard). Judy Blume also wrote some other great books like "Maddie and me and the dirty book," "Otherwise known as Shiela the great," and, for the pre-Emo kids, "Are you there God? It's me Margaret." No one ever read that.
We had a few popular "reading campaigns" when I was in school; one was called "Read Across America," and it was sponsored by our school. Depending on how much you read, you got different awards like shirts, rulers, pencils, and a cool pin we all wore that said "Eager Reader" on it! The whole idea was to read ACROSS America, and we got "moved" for every book we read. Another popular reading venture:

I kicked BUTT at this! I read so much for this, and I got so many pledges; I was able to fund raise a lot for MS. One of the big prizes for reading here involved getting gift certificates for Papa Ginos Pizza--I really wish we had one of these in Maine (the pizza place, not the MS Readathon...although that would be nice too!)
These days, if I get to read one book per month, I think I am doing pretty well! I would really like to commit to reading more. How about you?








1 comment:

M.I.L. said...

When I was younger, I devoured the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon and others. I don't recall having the amount of choices that there are today for young readers. I also loved Treasure Island and the Swiss Family Robinson (an old book that belonged to my grandmother and I loved it because it was old and smelled good)and the Scarlett Pimpernal (which I am desperately trying to get a certain teacher read and teach). I wish I had more time to read now, my favorite English mysteries and early American History and biographies. I'm saving all my books for my children and grandchildren. Aren't you excited?


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