Cheryl prairie- steber

1. ELEMENTARY READER AUTOBIOGRAPHY Cheryl prairie-steber

2. My early years I don’t recall any particular reading habits that my parents installed in me. We moved from Germany when I was still a young child. My mother was learning the English language so she didn’t read to methat I can recall. She was also busy having more kids so she didn’t have time to read to meafter she could read the language. My Dad was never a good reader so he never read to us either. I do recall seeing the Dr. Seuss books around when I was younger but I can’t remember if we had any. Another book I vaguely remember is Put Me In The Zoo.

3. Lancaster, Ohio When I was young we would move around a lot. We mostly lived out in the country but when we moved to Lancaster, Ohio I was in 3rd grade. I remember that they had opened up a new library in a newer subdivision and I would always walk to the library to check out books. My favorite book was The Boxcar Children. I always thought it would be cool to live in a boxcar. I remember the librarian telling me that I had already checked the book out 5 times. In 1974 we moved back to Germany and for the plane ride my mother bought the book Twins for me to read. I still have it boxed up in the attic.

4. Back to germany When we moved back to Germany we lived in a small town. It didn’t have a library and I do recall a book van coming every so often to let people check out books. I never checked any out and neither did anyone else because it stopped shortly after we moved to Bersrod. My parents were poor so they didn’t buy me books very often but for Christmas one year I did get Die Rote Zora. Zora was a girl with red hair that was a leader of a gang of orphans during WWII. I also was a huge TV watcher and then would get books from the shows like PippiLangstrumpf and Michel ausLoeneberga.

5. Busecker Tal This was my 5-10th grade school. I remember reading a lot of books in this school. Last year I did go back to visit my former school. My favorite teacher Frau Reinhardt was still teaching, bless her heart, I didn’t do her in. She was our homeroom, German and English teacher. She was a huge influence on me. I used to read a lot of Mad magazines. She even encouraged me in 7th grade to paint a mural of Don Martin in the girl’s restroom because I thought it was boring looking.

6. During the School year readings I remember having to read a lot of books for school. Some of my favorites were German classics like Goethe, Herman Hesse and Max Frisch. I also liked more contemporary books like the book on the left. It came out when I was a young teen and it was a story about a reactor failure and the aftermaths of a life in a nuclear world. Schewenborn is close to where I lived so it became more personal to us. I know they still use that book in school because me niece was reading it for classes last year.

7. Buseckertalbibliotheke This is our library. It looks very much the same except the circulation desk used to be where they have a reading corner (picture on the left). We went to hang out in the library when we were waiting between classes. German schools are different from here in the States. I remember always checking out books from this library. They aren’t as far developed with technology like we are now.