To me, there is something wonderful about reading. Curling up with a good book and just losing yourself in a story, another world, another life. When I was young I read everything! Anything put in front of me, I'd read. From a young age I've loved books and it's never left me. The first books I can remember actually received as a gift were a set of paperbacks of The Chronicles of Narnia. I had borrowed them over and over again from the library and a friend of my Mum's at the time brought them as a birthday gift. This was nearly 30 years ago. I still have those books, and when the urge takes me, I still read them as well. I still soak up every word and find the stories as magical as I did when I was a child.
I've always had a notion to get the same books for one or other of my Nieces when they were old enough to enjoy them. At the moment, Jenna is nearly 8, and Carys just 5. Jenna is more into making things and her gymnastics than reading, but Carys does love being read to, and is a pretty good reader herself already. I was wandering around the shops in Yarmouth a few weeks ago and came across a copy of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, beautifully illustrated on every page and slightly shortened and simplified for younger children. I picked it up on a whim, thinking that Carys might enjoy it.
We gave it to her on her birthday, which was on the 5th of June and this evening I received a text from my Sister....Carys is hooked! Apparently she hung on every word as my Sister read her the story, and has been watching the DVD over and over. It was a simple text, but the feeling of joy from such a simple thing was wonderful, something that I had loved so much as a child, had been adored by Carys. It's really hard to describe how that felt, but perhaps it's hard to understand unless you love the gift of reading as much as I do.
When you have a love of reading you have a passport to go anywhere you want to go, whatever mood you may be in you will always find something to pique your interest and expand your mind in some way. If my simple gift to my 5 year old Niece has planted that little spark in her mind, I will be over the moon! There is so much to distract children (and adults) these days away from books, so much that diverts the mind in this age of short attention spans and electronics - but, if the electricity disappeared tomorrow, I'd be happy. I'd light a candle and curl up with one of my hundreds of books and lose myself all over again :)
I've always had a notion to get the same books for one or other of my Nieces when they were old enough to enjoy them. At the moment, Jenna is nearly 8, and Carys just 5. Jenna is more into making things and her gymnastics than reading, but Carys does love being read to, and is a pretty good reader herself already. I was wandering around the shops in Yarmouth a few weeks ago and came across a copy of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, beautifully illustrated on every page and slightly shortened and simplified for younger children. I picked it up on a whim, thinking that Carys might enjoy it.
We gave it to her on her birthday, which was on the 5th of June and this evening I received a text from my Sister....Carys is hooked! Apparently she hung on every word as my Sister read her the story, and has been watching the DVD over and over. It was a simple text, but the feeling of joy from such a simple thing was wonderful, something that I had loved so much as a child, had been adored by Carys. It's really hard to describe how that felt, but perhaps it's hard to understand unless you love the gift of reading as much as I do.
When you have a love of reading you have a passport to go anywhere you want to go, whatever mood you may be in you will always find something to pique your interest and expand your mind in some way. If my simple gift to my 5 year old Niece has planted that little spark in her mind, I will be over the moon! There is so much to distract children (and adults) these days away from books, so much that diverts the mind in this age of short attention spans and electronics - but, if the electricity disappeared tomorrow, I'd be happy. I'd light a candle and curl up with one of my hundreds of books and lose myself all over again :)
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