Adventures in Reading

The day I entered first grade at Marquette School was the day I learned how to read. I don't remember being read to as a little kid,

but my parents were avid readers and my sister still is. So, by the time I took my

first Dick and Jane primer home from school, I was well on my way.

Picture a six year old me sitting on the front stoop of our home in heat of early September.

 I was so excited, I couldn't keep from yelling aloud. The letters on the page had arranged themselves into words.

Dick was running after Spot, Jane was chasing Puff and I was in heaven!  I think a neighbor lady came by to see what all  the noise was about.,

I told her, "I can read this book." ....and I did. Boy, was she impressed!

From that day on, I knew that all  I wanted to do was read. I read in the morning before school. I read when I came home for lunch. I read during class when I should have been doing math. And I read at night under the covers with a flashlight.

The old fashioned way of teaching reading was with phonics and oral reading. That absolutely bored me to death. Once I acquired a word by sight, it was mine forever. When we had "round robin" read alouds, I would be five pages ahead of the class. I absolutely loved visiting  the school library. I had a wonderful friend in Mrs. Gibbons, our librarian. She kept me supplied with all the books I wanted and encouraged me to start reading science fiction and history in fourth grade.  After awhile, Mrs. Gibbons turned me on to science fiction and fantasy magazines .They didn't have them in our library, but she let my mom know I was interested, and I soon started getting them through the mail.

Our family spent summers by Lake Michigan, but we were kept supplied with library books. I can picture my mom lugging bags of books from our car into the cottage. They were vacation loans, meant to last all summer. After a few weeks, the books went back, and more books magically appeared. The only place we couldn't read them was at the beach. That was ok, because there was a hammock strung between two trees in the front yard that made a perfect shady place to enjoy a book in the early evening.

My buddy, Danny  was just as voracious a reader as I was. We started trading books, and one week-end when I slept over at his house, he showed me his older brother, Alan's collection of science fiction books. I became hooked on Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.


In high school, I took honors English courses and was introduced to Shakespeare, Hemingway, Steinbeck and Wilder to name a few. Say what you will about the Chicago Public Schools, all my high school English teachers were outstanding.


After toying with the idea of becoming a pharmacist, I switched my major to English in college and never looked back. I have found that the joy of reading a good book is only exceeded by teaching it. Books have been my life.