Book Girl: A Journey Through the Treasures & Transforming Power of a Reading Life by Sarah Clarkson.
Book Girl Discussion Question #11: What mentors fostered a love of reading for you? To whom are you passing along the gift of reading?
My reading mentors:
My mom, of course.
Two children’s librarians at Tom Green County library in San Angelo, Texas: Ms. Karen Vavricka and Ms. Carolyn ?. Both of them would patiently work with me each time I came to the library, recommending books that I might like until I got to my limit of ten books to check out and read. They saved books especially for me, and they knew me and my reading preferences. I later got to work with Karen in the reference section of that same library, and I consider her my librarian mentor, too.
It seems as if there might be a teacher or two that I would consider my reading mentors, but I mostly remember sneaking in reading in classes that were devoted to boring stuff like math or science. I had to hide my books behind the math book or the geography book or hide them in my lap and hope the teacher wouldn’t notice. I had to smuggle books out onto the playground where we were supposed to play, not read.
And to whom am I passing along the gift of reading?
To my children. To the patrons of my library. To anyone who will listen. To anyone who reads my blog.
What about you? Who were your reading mentors? With whom are you sharing the joy of reading?
The only ones I can remember for sure are my first grade teacher and an older lady I met in my early twenties who got me started reading Christian biographies. My sophomore college literature teacher excelled in helping me mine for the good things in literature, too.