make a reading promise

"No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books." 

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My mom bought me The Reading Promise for my birthday and sent it to El Salvador with my dad. I devoured it in my spare time over the past three days and believe it is worthy of an entire post.

When Alice Ozma was nine, she and her father made a promise to read aloud together every night for 100 consecutive nights. Upon reaching that goal, they decided to continue for 1,000 nights, and then for as long as they possibly could, ultimately ending "The Streak" on day 3,218 - the day Alice moved to college. While this story is about a girl, her father, their relationship and their love for books, it also shares a message about the importance of reading and supporting reading programs in our schools and communities.

As The Reading Promise asserts, I wholeheartedly believe that one of the greatest gifts parents can give their children is a love of reading. Reading, especially reading aloud, improves children's listening, vocabulary, verbal and written language skills. It increases attention spans and builds social skills by teaching them about relationships, personalities and life situations. Curiosity, creativity and imagination are developed. Studies also show that children whose parents read to them perform better in school.

I am a bibliophile because my parents understood the power of this gift, and for that (as well as a thousand other reasons) I am convinced I won the parent lottery. As far back as I can remember, and even before then, Mom and Dad were reading to me. I know this is true because I have pictures of me at six months old, sharing their laps with a stack of picture books. I am told my favorites were Katie the Kitten and Little Hedgehog Helps Out.

Reading aloud didn't end when I became too old to sit in their laps. I can remember snuggling in bed with my mom, through at least middle school, having her read me Little Women, The Swiss Family Robinson and other classics. In fact, I recently found my copy of The Swiss Family Robinson, and upon opening it, discovered a list of vocabulary words in my sixth-grade handwriting. Beside each word was also a page and paragraph number denoting its location within the story. These were the words looked up in my trusty dictionary either during or after our nightly reading sessions. Nerdy? I think so, and am proud of it.

This is my support of Alice Ozma's commitment to spread the word about reading and the importance of making a reading promise. With 52 Books in 52 Weeks, I am renewing my love reading and creating a reading promise to myself. Someday I also hope to make a reading promise with my children and read aloud to them, just as Alice's father did with her and my parents did with me.