|
Missouri Humanities Council e-News | August 2009 | View Online | ||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||
A Beautiful ThreadBy Julie Douglas, Family Program Specialist
Just looking at the cover of a Dick and Jane basal reader takes me back to Wilson Elementary school, 1963. We’re seated in a little circle, heads bent over our copies of Dick and Jane. The classroom clock ticks steadily in the corner and rain is pelting the windows. My teacher, Miss Ball, gently coaxes us to read the new words aloud. I can almost smell the little books, and I feel the butterflies of apprehension and excitement growing in my stomach. Books like Friends and Neighbors and Fun with Dick and Jane were an important ingredient in the magic that was happening to my 6 year old self. I was learning to read! It is no surprise that people collect these books or frame illustrations from the stories. For many adults, the experience of becoming a reader is a beautiful thread in the fabric of who they are. First Book*, a foundation that provides books to children in need (and donates thousands of books to the READ from the START program here in Missouri), has an interesting project taking place on its web site. Celebs and non-celebs are invited to answer the question, “What book got you hooked?” Who knew that Stephen Colbert was a Swiss Family Robinson fan? I was not at all surprised to learn that R.L Stine (of Goosebumps fame) claims as his favorite book from childhood one of my own faves…Something Wicked This Way Comes. Doreen Cronin, one of my favorite children’s authors, points to Mother Goose as the book that got her hooked. And, although I have no idea who Bow Wow is, we share a love of Curious George. For me, the book that I could NOT put down was The Boxcar Children. As summer winds down, we are busy here at MHC gearing up for fall READ from the START programs and a second year of encouraging family reading in ten Read First! communities. Through these programs, our Discussion Leaders and sponsoring site partners are working together to help Missouri parents create positive experiences with their children and books. We passionately believe that every child deserves to be “hooked” on a book! [Return to Passages Front Page] Also in This Issue:
Support the Council
|
||||||||||
 Published monthly by the Missouri Humanities Council, a tax-exempt, non-profit organization
affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Federal agency.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Permission to reprint with this attribution, "Missouri Humanities Council, mohumanities.org" and email or post notice of use.
|
I recently read an article about collectors of Dick and Jane books and prints. If you went to school in the 1930’s through the 1970’s, you know who I’m talking about. Many of us learned to read by spending time with Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot and Puff. 