With our In The Middle Wednesday series, Nancie Atwell talks about where her love of reading came from.
How did you become such a passionate reader?
The home I grew up in didn’t have books in it, and my siblings and I weren't read to. My dad was a postal carrier, my mother waitressed, and there wasn’t money, time, or a family tradition of reading, apart from the Buffalo Evening News. At my elementary school, we were taken to the library once a week to peruse the spines of ancient volumes without dust jackets; in reading class, we worked our way through the color-coded cards in the S.R.A. kit.
Then, in fifth grade, I contracted rheumatic fever. It took me off my feet and kept me in bed for six months, at a time when no child had a television, phone, or computer in her bedroom. I nearly went crazy with boredom.
My mother began to visit our tiny public library in search of stories I might like to read. It was through her valiant efforts that I encountered Ellen Tibbits, Beezus and Ramona, Henry Huggins, and the heroes of the Landmark biography series. But my strongest memory is of The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgdon-Burnett.
When my mother delivered it to my bedroom, I rejected it at once. It was old, it smelled musty, and it went straight to the bottom of the pile. When I’d read all the other books twice, I finally cracked open The Secret Garden. It was perfect.
I was Colin; I was Mary; I was intrigued, consoled, and captivated. I begged my mother: “Get me more like this one.” But there’s only one Secret Garden.
The great gift my mother gave me the winter I was ten was an ability to read fast and with feeling. I was already a competent little decoder, but something happened to me because of all that time and all those books chosen by someone who loved me. Today, much of what I do as a teacher of reading serves the same function for my students as my mom’s efforts did for me.
I emerged from my bedroom a fluent, passionate reader. In my classroom, I give kids stories I hope will delight them. Once delighted, they become insiders—lifelong members of what Frank Smith calls “the literacy cub.” Whether or not they have books in their homes, all students need teachers who will take care of them as readers—give them quiet, a library of well-chosen books, conversations, and time to get lost in stories they love.
This blog post is part of In the Middle Wednesdays series. Please visit http://www.heinemann.com/InTheMiddle to learn more.