Elementary School Teachers

In Duzine and Lenape it was sooo cool if you were in the advanced reading group. So, I thank my elementary school teachers for pressuring us at such a young age and teaching us the importance of reading so early. But besides reading about advanced subjects and aloud in groups what really made me love reading was DEAR time. Drop Everything And Read. What could get better than that?! Of course now there are 'more important' things to do in school but I'm going to try to bring it back all the same. DEAR time was just plain awesome. Stopping for 20-40 minutes to grab a good book, sit on a bean bag in a corner and just enjoy reading? School will never be so fun again. But besides DEAR time, Mrs. Weiss, my 1st grade teacher taught me to love reading through writing my own stories. I made my own picture books about the adventures of Cannon and Moo-Moo, (aka my rabbit and my favorite animal) and I still have the set to this day. I would go searching for new ideas and my favorite is probably the one about when they went to the moon, inspired by Wallace and Grommit of course. But I loved writing my own books and making up new stories and spent all of my DEAR time that year reading for more. So thanks Mrs. Weiss, and thanks school district. Lets bring DEAR time back.

My Grandfather

Every summer my family visits my grandparents in Buffalo, NY. Of course they never had Disney Channel, ABC Family or Nickelodeon but they always had plenty of books. After awhile sitting around in someone's house gets boring, so I would always start to wander off with a good book I'd found on the bottom shelf. The car rides were excruciatingly long as well, 5, 6 sometimes 7 hours long. Just the journey there was always a reading experience in itself. But like I said, a good amount of the time there too was spent reading. My grandfather would always ask what the book was about, note a children's book review he'd read in the Times and every visit we'd take one extra long walk to our favorite book store on Elm Street. The coffee shop right next door gave it its charm, but its magic came from the book shelves themselves. Filled to the brim with mysteries, biographies and A-List books (my favorite at the time, unfortunately) it was the best place to get carried away in. So throughout the year my sister, brother and I would be sent books that we'd told our grandfather about with the Elm Street bookmarks stuffed inside. Thanks Grandpa.

Ode to Harry Potter

Thank you, J.K Rowling. You can't imagine the impact Harry Potter has left on my life. How many times a day do you think I wish I could apparate? And how do you think I felt when I turned 11 and blew out the candles and no owl came busting through my window? And of course whenever there is a natural disaster, I think Voldemort is behind it. And yes, when I turn 18 I want the dark mark tattooed on my wrist. When I went to my friend's lake house over summer one year I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, everyday, and canoed to the big lake to read Harry Potter and since I've made it a tradition to re-read the series every summer. Why not? Each time I fall in love a little bit more with Harry, wish a little bit more that I was Hermione and I would kill for a pet owl that brought me letters. Of course the movies aren't as good, but I still wait in line at midnight every time. My most desired fantasy is of course a ticket to a quiditch game and my daily vocabulary includes Patronus, dementor and at night, walking into my room, yes. I say 'Lumos.' But I'm not ashamed, not at all! I'm a proud Harry Potter geek and my pick up lines have even gotten me places if you know what I mean. I'm a Harry Potter nerd and I want to put my basalisk in your chamber of secrets.

Libraries

I love libraries. I don't really know why, but I am fully capable of spending 48 hours in a library. Actually, I want to be trapped in one over night. Its probably because I love the smell of books, but theres something about being surrounded by knowledge and information-- and having the power to know it all. I learned to ride a bike without training wheels early and on my own time. I wanted to be able to ride my bike to the Gardiner library (where I first participated in story time) whenever I wanted. I would take out a new book and walk across the street to my favorite stream and be able to return the book and take a new one out in the same day. Elting Memorial Library on the other hand serves an entirely different purpose. Its actually one of my favorite places to go with my boyfriend. He loves reading as much as I do so once we each find something to sit down with we find a good corner read, occasionally sharing something aloud and holding hands the entire time. Cheesy, but its definitely one of the reasons I love libraries. And finally, the school Library. Ask anyone who has seen my locker, I love free book day. Sometimes it gets a little out of control. The book shelves in my room are stocked with reference books; atlas, encyclopedia, french-english dictionary etc, and the free book carts at the library make it so easy to love being bored at my house. They also, incidentally make wonderful last-minute gifts. Theres usually something for everyone just hope they didn't just clean out the mathematics section.