Today, I was reading the reading assignment from the book Family of Readers. The first page assigned was a story of how a Grandmother read to her Grandchildren the children's book, Honey Bear. She mentions how the book has been her favorite since she was a little girl. She also mentions how when we reads this book to her Grandchildren, she reads it with such emotion and tears because the book means so much to her and has so many memories of her childhood linked to it.
When I was reading this I found it very interesting, but then when I was reflecting on it afterwards I realized that I have a book that is very dear to me as well. My parents, mostly my Dad, would read Butterfly Kisses to me on countless nights of my childhood. At the time it was just a story, words on a page, my Dads voice just reading. I would listen and then eventually be able to recite the book with him, even though I never did because I loved just hearing him read it to me.
Now that I am older Butterfly Kisses is so much more to me than just a story. It is my childhood, it is a story about my father and I, and the words on the page are very close to my heart. The book stays on my bookshelf, next to my bed, at my house, sometimes pick it up and start reading it. It doesn't last long before I start to tear up. Knowing that I was that little girl in the story, but now I am the girl in the story that is growing up, going off to college, and eventually getting walked down the aisle.
Butterfly Kisses is the book I cannot read without feeling emotional and remembering, and missing, my childhood. It makes me miss my Dad reading to be every single night and, especially now that I am in college, it makes me miss my family a lot. I am glad I got to read Margaret Mahy's story about her childhood book because it made me think of a book of mine that is so dear to my heart as well.
Lauren, I totally agree with you! A book can be more than words on a page. Many times there is an underlying meaning and a personal connection. The story becomes alive and your emotions and personal feelings get involved. When a book such as Butterfly Kisses tells a story of a daddy and his daughter it is easy for that same audience to connect (a dad and his daughter) I don't think that this book would hold the same affect and emotions for a father reading this to his son.
ReplyDeleteThis definitely caught my attention also when reading in A Family of Readers because my dad and I also shared this book as our own when I was younger. My dad reading this to me meant the world. Every time I think of the book I can hear my father and all of the different inflections he used at different points in the story and the way way he held me close.
Again, a book can be more than just words on a page when you make your own personal connections and inferences. It can be cover to cover full of memories.