As we spring towards another season of summer reading, your local library bookworms on staff are thrilled to dive into some new books! But while reading came easily to some of us as little ones, others struggled with learning to read-- or never realized how much we could love reading until we found the right book. In this collection of early childhood reading stories, Cromaine Library staff discuss learning to read, fond reading memories, favorite childhood books, overcoming obstacles in reading, and more. These sweet, funny, and heartfelt early childhood reading stories are sure to make you smile-- and they may just inspire you to dive into a good book!
Adult Services Librarian Erin:
"My mom loves to tell the story of little me in first grade, learning to read. She got a call from my teacher, who told her I was struggling on the edge of being a reader, and she just didn't know how to tip me over the edge (looking back, she was probably a very new teacher at the time!). Mom thought about it for a bit, then, while walking home from school with me, she asked me, 'So, do you think that once you can read for yourself, I am going to stop reading to you at night?' She says that I stopped and gave her the look-- the 'how did you just guess what I am thinking?!?' guilty one. She continues, 'That's not true. Once you can read those baby books by yourself, we'll move on to chapter books.'
Three days later... she had to make good on that promise. My teacher called her, cheering-- and laughed like crazy when Mom told her what I'd been doing."
Youth Librarian Bekah:
"When I was in fifth grade my little sister, Anna, was in Kindergarten and I loved having an excuse to keep reading picture books long after I had "aged out" of them. I have the best memories of reading The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant to her as we cracked up at the illustrations. Our other favorites were Berenstain Bears and the Disney books that came with red cassette tapes (#agingmyself). I can still remember the narrator saying 'you will know it is time to turn the page when you hear the chimes ring like this (bliiing)'."
Community Relations' Shelby:
"I was so obsessed with reading as a kid that I would sneak my little chapter books upstairs to bed at night and read after bedtime. My mother would come up and take my book away because if she didn't, I'd stay up all night reading! She'd put my book downstairs on the coffee table and carry on with her evening, and I would be so determined to read my book that I would sneak downstairs and take it back. 😤 I'm sure she knew I was doing this-- I wasn't very sneaky-- but after coming upstairs to take my book away a few times, I think she would just give up. (Sorry, mom.)"
Circulation's Donna:
"When I was in the third grade, I had an exchange teacher from England, Miss Davis. She read us The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I have read that book many times over the years. I still hear her voice when I read it."
Youth Librarian Heather:
"I learned how to read when I was very young, and my favorite books were Nancy Drew, Goosebumps, Fear Street, Baby-Sitter's Club, Silver Blades, and Garfield comics. My mom and I used to go to the library once a week or so, and she always encouraged me to check out anything I wanted. It always felt so magical! My favorite reading memory is with my mom, too: she and I used to read chapter books aloud together, alternating readers for each page. She and I were just talking about it the other day, too, and it's a very special memory for both of us."
Community Relations Manager Pam:
"I was an obsessive reader as a kid-- I always had a book with me, wherever I went. That obsession reached a whole new level when the Harry Potter series was first published. I read the first book cover to cover within a matter of a few days, and I re-read it so many times that the binding cracked and I needed to buy a new one. My grandmother noticed how much I loved the book, and planned accordingly when the release date of the second one was announced. She had the magical ability to wake up at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and be fully coherent and functioning, so she arrived at our local bookstore bright and early in order to be the first one to purchase the second Harry Potter book. I woke up to find that the book had been left on the kitchen table for me, like a Magical Novel Fairy had visited and then disappeared back into the early morning sunrise. I DEVOURED it within a day. My grandma kept that tradition going for every HP book after that, and it's one of my fondest childhood memories...Harry-Potter-Eve had the same level of excitement for me as the night before Christmas!"
Circulation's Nina:
"When I was little, I had a book called I Love You Like Crazy Cakes by Rose A. Lewis and illustrated by Jane Dyer. It's a story about an American woman who adopts a baby from China. My mom bought it before she adopted me and she used to read it to me. Many parts of the book are eerily similar to events that happened when my parents traveled to China to adopt me, like the part where the mom puts different hats on the baby (there was one night where neither of us could sleep, so my mom dressed me up in different outfits she had bought for me and took photos). The mom in the book also looks a little like my mom. Because it was so similar to my life, I actually thought the book was written about me (it wasn't, obviously, haha). Unfortunately, I don't have the book anymore, but maybe someday I will buy a copy to read to my kids."
Adult Services Librarian Erik:
"I was decidedly NOT a reader as a child. Despite my mother's best efforts to instill her love for reading in me through performance art (she had the BEST voices for all of the characters in my picture books) and bribery (offering to let me stay up as late as I wanted as long as I was reading), I was a rambunctious little devil who had neither the patience nor inclination to sit still long enough to read anything besides the scoreboard of whatever sport I was playing at the time. I read well enough to do well in school, but as soon as the final bell rang, it was off to the woods behind my house or the baseball diamond for this feral child.
In fact, about five or so years ago, my mother and I stumbled upon a box of all of my old schoolwork. Amongst the spaghetti art and old report cards was a future career assessment I had taken in the 6th grade. Part of this assessment asked me to rate how much I thought I would enjoy the listed career on a scale of 1 to 10. One of the listed careers was librarian. I rated the possibility of being a librarian a 1, by far the lowest of the careers in the assessment.
So what changed? Sometime in 7th or 8th grade, we were assigned book reports. The bane of my existence. I found the book Remember Me by Christopher Pike on my English teacher's bookshelf. It was about a dead girl trying to solve her own murder from beyond the grave. (You can hear my and Heather's thoughts about this gem on Cromaine's Podcast.)
Wait, what? This was allowed? Books didn't have to be boring? The preteen horror movie fan in me was delighted and I quickly devoured the rest of Christopher Pike's catalogue and quickly moved onto Stephen King. It was over for me from there and I've become a very strong proponent of exposing reluctant readers to as many different voices as possible. Sometimes it's just about finding the right voice for the right person so if you know a reluctant reader, don't give up! There's an author out there for everyone. Without that Christopher Pike discovery, who knows where I would be or what I would be doing now? Almost certainly not here with all of you. So I guess you've got Christopher Pike to thank (or blame) for getting me here to Cromaine!"
Whatever your early relationship with reading was like, we hope you have discovered books that bring you joy and knowledge, and that you have created your own unforgettable reading memories!