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Elementary Reader Autobiography. Denise M. Fries C&I 449 Summer, 2010. Early Reading Experiences. I was always read to as a child. As the first grandchild on both sides of the family with many aunts and uncles, my parents were only two of many reading role models.
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Elementary Reader Autobiography Denise M. Fries C&I 449 Summer, 2010
Early Reading Experiences • I was always read to as a child. As the first grandchild on both sides of the family with many aunts and uncles, my parents were only two of many reading role models. • I don’t remember any real early reading times, but I’ve seen the proof in pictures!
Favorite Books • My parents claim that I asked for two books to be read so many times that they even hid the books on occasion to avoid having to read them to me AGAIN! I do remember asking for these two books over and over!
Go, Dog, Go! When I was little, I really, really wanted my Gramma and Grampa Fries’ copy of the book, Go, Dog, Go! Finally, probably in an effort to get me off of their backs, they made me a deal. The book was mine to take home once I stopped sucking my thumb. That was HARD, but I still have my treasured copy today! (I get to read it a lot, too, as our youngest daughter loves it as much as I did!)
I went to kindergarten as a reader. I have been told I was reading in my second year of pre-school, but I don’t remember actually starting to read. • I do know that I was one of the only students in my class who could read when we started kindergarten.
We began with the beloved Dick and Jane series in kindergarten, but it was ripped from us brutally at the beginning of the second semester of First Grade. Our wonderful readers were replaced with The Letter People. I remember the teacher telling my parents at the time that it was a shame that I was a “self-taught reader” because that was going to make it that much more difficult for me to “get” phonics. (Just for the record, I have an auditory discrimination problem and HATE phonics to this day. I’m not real crazy about the teacher who spoke in front of me either!)
Reading Experiences • I had my very own library card at Withers Public Library (now Bloomington Public Library) when I was five years old. At that time, that was the youngest you could be to have a card. (I LOVED the librarian Mrs. Wallace! ) • I participated in the Summer Reading Program every summer from kindergarten through age 12---which was when I was told I was to “old” to continue with the reading program. • I participated in the MS Read-a-Thon for several years. What a trip it was to “earn” donations by doing my FAVORITE THING-Reading!
The School Library… Our school, Washington Grade School, had a fairly nice library. Each class visited the library once a week. At some point our librarian changed and I just didn’t like the new one so much. I guess she just wasn’t Mrs. Wallace at Withers! I was able to join “Junior Great Books” in the fourth grade and was a member through sixth grade. We did this over our lunch time with a parent volunteer.
When I was 11, my only brother died in a freak accident. This left me not quite as old as my aunts and uncles, but closer to them in age than to my much younger cousins. Family gatherings usually found me in a corner at some point with a good book. Books helped me work through my brother’s death in a way that my peers could not---at least there were characters in books that understood my loss; my peers could not.
Favorite series • The Trixie Belden series • The Boxcar Children series • The Cherry Ames series • The Beanie Maloneseries • The Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series • Books by Carolyn Haywood • Mysteries! • Biographies---especially about Abraham Lincoln
