Learning to Read...

This has to rank among my favorite books if only because I learned to read with the rhythm and rhymes of the words of Dr. Seuss. cuh aaaa  tttt.  cat.  This book was published in 1957 and Seuss wrote it specifically to teach children to read.  My mother (who is now on her 88th book this year) took me to the library every week as a child.

It still lingers in the minds of many and was even quoted in the Senate (Harry Reid used the line, "'That is good,' said the fish. 'He's gone away, yes. But your mother will come. She will find this big mess.'" to describe the immigration impass).

Books can also teach you how to live... A Happiness project writer notes these lines from Seuss, saying that you do have to know how to have fun and enjoying life is a key to happiness:

Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me NOW!
It is fun to have fun
But you have to know how.

 

After taking my children to hear Texas author, cowboy and rancher John Erickson perform one of his readings from his series, Hank the Cowdog, my children began reading his books to his tapes.  I think I could thank Erickson's literal readings of his Hank yarns with his own music and character voices for the excellent reading skills of my son.  Erickson had tried to find a national publisher but wasn't tremendously successful until he published regionally.  I'm not the only mother to credit a son's reading skills to Hank the Cowdog.  The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog has been re-released as a special 20th anniversary edition.  Read the Amazon reviews.  The Hank tales are a grassroots publishing success story.

Dogs and cats and the love of reading.  Yee-haw, giddyup page turnin' fun.

Seuss honed his cats and talents as a political cartoonist during WWII,  for a NYC tabloid, writes Shamindar Dulai, a student writing about photojournalism on his post about truth and posting this Seuss cartoon, left.

Erickson didn't write children's books at first, either.

Parents are discouraged that their children don't take up reading as we did. Don't lifelong readers make life long learners?  Does reading Facebook count?   

Comments

[Les Becker]

I still love Seuss! I'll bet I could still recite 'The Cat in the Hat' from memory...

My mother, on the other hand, HATED Seuss - she said it was the worst nonsense she'd ever read, and she taught kids to read for nearly 50 years. They would ASK for Dr. Seuss, and she (Gasp!) would REFUSE. How can anyone hate Dr. Seuss?!

[Janet]

My grandmother bought me Fox in Sox when it first came out (I was 2 or 3), and I made her read that repeatedly. Which she did uncomplainingly because that's the kind of grandmother she was. Things do come around though because when my cousin was born, he loved, loved, loved Fox in Sox, so I got to read it to him repeatedly (I was 26). And I loved every minute of it. I read voraciously now, and I firmly believe it's because my grandparents and my mother read to us. We read to each other. My husband comes from the same kind of family, so we both enjoy reading to our kids (and yes, Fox in Sox is a favorite), particularly since we waited until our 40s to have kids. And now they like to "read" to each other, which since they are 2 and almost 4, consists mainly of reciting to each other. But I think it counts.

[Strawberry]

I loved Dr. Seuss growing up and with my children. Green Eggs and Ham was a favorite at our house.

Both my children also read Hank the Cowdog but my son truly loved them. He made a list of the ones he had at Christmas and birthday time so family would know which ones he didn't have and would like. He also subscribed to John Erickson's newsletter and even corresponded with him. One time, our son sent him the first chapter of a possible new story that he had written, hoping Mr. Erickson would use it.