Elementary Reading Experiences

When I was in elementary school, I remember being read to more than reading independently. In elementary school, learning to read was somewhat of a struggle for me. A lot of my memories of that time period in regards to reading, are ones of books that the librarian, teachers, or my parents read to me. I can remember books like Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown being read to me almost every night. I can also remember books such as The Giving Tree and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? being read to me by our school librarian when we would visit. These books were some that always held a special place in my heart. Some books that I can remember reading later on in elementary school are The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne. I can remember feeling transported as soon as I read that first line. It was exciting, adventurous, and thrilling. I had never been whisked away by a book like that. Another series I read repeatedly in elementary school was the Wayside School series by Louis Sachar. In this text, there were three books to read. I read them all multiple times. I very much enjoyed the humor of it all. I also liked that I was reading a book that was about kids attending school just like I was at the time. The one book that really helped me get to that point of independent reading was Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. My favorite poem in this book was Boa Constrictor. I remember giggling as I read how the rhymes were written out in this poem. Even though the topic of a boy getting eaten up by a boa constrictor is a bit dark, as a child, I can remember focusing more on the rhyme and almost beat to the reading of the poem. It seemed more like a silly song to me. Another one of my favorite poems in this particular book was of course, the poem that shares the name of the title, Where the Sidewalk Ends. I liked this poem because even though it was titled Where the Sidewalk Ends, it always left me with a sense of hope after reading it. As if, this place that was being described was somehow a better place than its name suggests. Every book that I have listed here in this post I have very fond memories of either them being read to me as a child or reading them myself. Now, as an adult, I have my own copies of these books that I am able to read to my nephew and niece as well as the students in my classroom. This is what I love most about books like these. That I can pass on the joy and excitement that I felt when I first read them to a new generation of readers.