This Is The Face Of A Reader

A few nights ago I promised the girls 15 books before bed. We settled down early in pjs and scrubbed faces. They each chose two and I surprised them with the rest. Marta handed me a library find by Blues Clues - not my ideal reading material, but it's theirs of the moment. In this book's text are pictures of a few familiar things, which urge kids to "read" them. Pictures of a familiar character or a carousel, for example, within the story line. This particular story line was about the whole Blues Clues gang at a fair.

So I let the kids take turns telling me the first few pictures on the first page while I read the text. Berit was up first on the second page, and she said, exasperated, "Mom, I can read all of it." And: she did. She read the whole damn book.

I remember the first book I ever read on my own. In fact, my mother kept it, and now I have it in storage. It's called "I Need," and is simple and small. As Berit read her own first book, through my significant pride and happy tears, I realized that I would need to buy this Blues Clues book from our library.

Berit was proud, and her impressing smile got bigger each time we turned a page. She knew then, too, the leap she had just made on her timeline of life. There is before reading and after reading. My girl's gone ahead and learned to read, all on her own. This is about to get very, very fun.