The Joy of a Voracious Reader

January 18, 2007

t seems that reading is on many minds today. Amy and Two Kid Schoolhouse both blogged today about the joy of reading—by themselves and with their children. Just this morning I noticed a pile of books by Laurel’s bed and was hit with the most wonderful realization: my daughter is at last a voracious reader. I would be in denial if I didn’t admit that I have worried that our daughter would be a family anomaly. While Jesse took to reading with a furious appetite at age 7--gulping down 500-page novels in second-grade--, Laurel has taken a cautious approach, nibbling a little here and there. But at the end of last year as she approached her 9th birthday, she found a series that absolutely hooked her. Yes, it was what is known in Charlotte Mason circles as “twaddle”; fortunately, I am not a CM connoisseur and thus can happily embrace my daughter’s delight in reading The Babysitter’s Little Sister series. Not quite a year later, she is reading whenever and wherever she can. She has learned how books pass the time when you’re riding in the car or waiting, and how delicious it is to fall asleep with a good book. How comforting it is to me, in the evenings, to be reading in the blue chair and look over to couch to see my little girl curled up there, ingesting her latest book.