Learning to read opens the door to a universe of ideas, possibilities, imagination, learning and fun. Here is a letter I wrote to the Scholastic SeeSaw Reading club about how I leaned to read. Enjoy!
In a way, pictures were my first language. Before I could read words, my mum read to me. I loved chapter books that were sprinkled with illustrations. Books like The Wind in the Willows, Owls in the Family and The Borrowers. I could hardly wait for the page to turn so that I could “read” a picture. In between, I listened to the story and imagined my own pictures.
I remember the first word I learned to read. It was “cow” in the book Are You My Mother? By P.D. Eastman. I had learned a new language! From then on, I read EVERYTHING. Cereal boxes, comics, and books, books, books. I picked library books that had illustrations by artists I knew. It turned out those artists chose some pretty wonderful stories to illustrate. My favourite illustrators and authors became the teachers that taught me how to draw and write.
I still love reading pictures and words, and I use both languages to make my own stories.
Letter to readers