Friday, February 13, 2015

New Readers and How We Love Them

The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc

Second Daughter is learning to read. She's just at the brink of leaping off into that wide world of books with enough knowledge to sound out most simple words and an inkling of what other words should be. Earlier this week, she brought this book to me from our library stash. She said she wanted to read it to me but that she would need help with a few words. So she did.

I had already read this book and thought it was sweet but it didn't thrill me. I love how her attraction to the book inspired her to seek me out and share it with me. I enjoyed the book so much more when she read it to me than when I had skimmed it myself.

As Second Daughter is learning to read, she's revealing her tastes more clearly than ever before. It reminds me of that amazing time when each of my children first learned to talk. All along you knew there was a little thinking person running around (often terrorizing everyone in the house) and suddenly she begins to communicate with you in words.

I have learned so much this year about Second Daughter and how words and illustrations intrigue her and draw her in. Or not.