Fond Memories

If your parents or adult figure in your life read to you as a child, what book are you most fond of? Mine is The Giving Tree by Shel SilverStein, every time I see the cover I can't help but grin fondly at the nights my mother put me to sleep. :)

The Real Mother Goose and The Complete Brothers Grimm. I should mention that we read the real Brothers Grimm, the violent, gory ones that everyone wants to 'clean up' now. Also Aesop's Fables.

I honestly can't remember either of my parents reading to me as a child. But then, I can't remember not being able to read.

Of course, sometimes I can't remember what I had for dinner last night!

Like justjim, I cannot remember my mother reading to me, but I know that she did. AND she taught me to read, too.

She (& my dad) gave me many books when I was growing up.

and now she comments (complains) that I have too many books!

but she started the addiction!!!

My family didn't often read to me because I could read by myself at a really early age and therefore they didn't understand why should I need to bother them. But I used to insist and would always ask them to read The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss (over and over and over). I liked all the fabulous contraptions and while I didn't get the Cold War reference, I did understand the idea and it intrigued me. I used to make up different kinds of endings, good and bad.

They eventually hid the book, and admitted to it when I found it a long, long time later and said, "Oh, hey, remember when you used to read this to me?" to which they replied, "Yeah, that's why we hid it."

But my dad was different and he used to read to me, particularly Disney comics, and he would do all the voices. He read with me until I was practically a teenager. He understood that it wasn't about whether I was capable of reading the words, it was about the storytelling.

>5 macsbrains:
My sons are 28 years old and 22 years old and to this day I can recite "Spooky Old Tree" and "Mr. Brown can Moo can You?" by heart. I read to my sons starting the day I brought them home from the hospital till they reached 6th grade when they felt they were to old for it. I admit I was crushed. We didn't have books growing up but there was a bookmobile that came by and my mom would read us whatever we got. And when she couldn't my sister and I would take turns reading out load to our brother.

I just bought my favorite book to share with my son :)

My parents didn't read to us, but they bought a treasure that got us to love books. We spent many hours behind the couch absorbing the stories and illustrations from the 8 volume set of Book Trails. It came as an upgrade to the set of encyclopedias which were also heavily browsed and enjoyed.

Warning: Ethics Violation confession

My favorite book growing up is OOP & impossible to find, even through ebay & used bookstores. It was not a best seller or even popular, but I loved it.

So, a couple of years ago, I interloaned a copy from a state university children's library collection, then scanned the two dozen pages & cover. Then I returned the book.

I haven't "prettied" them up (they still exist in 25 separate scans) and I won't share the scans, but I can read the book and remember.... and smile.

The Monster and the End of This Book. My mom was (still is, actually) The Best reader aloud ever, and this, I think was her favorite to read to me, so it became my favorite too.

My mother read to us all the time when we were children, and walked with us to the little county branch library once a week. Looking back now, I am in awe of her energy and perserverance.

As a result of her diligence, I grew up into the career I have now, and also spend a fair amount of effort re-creating the childhood library I remember having, and the books I remember being favorites. Some were well known books like Where the Wild Things Are, some were beloved because of their illustrations--which became inextricably linked with the text in my mind so that to this day they remain the "official" versions of the story. A Child's Garden of Verses illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, illustrated by Dennis Deirks. Some were stories that only seemed to be family favorities, not shared by any other children in the neighborhood: All of Tove Jansson's Moomin books -- Moominsummer Madness was the first we discovered. My Father's Dragon, a strange little story called The Cow That Fell in the Canal, and some that seemed to be family heirlooms--books passed down to us that had belonged to my mother or my grandfather: a strange little story called Keo the Otter, an antique copy of Tasha Tudor's Snow Before Christmas, a strange and vivid story called Paddle to the Sea about a little carved Indian in a canoe that travels through all the Great Lakes and ends up across the ocean in France. These, and the many collections of fairy tales we seemed to have from all kinds of cultures (mom loved stories set in other places, and therefore I did too) set the tenor of my childhood so that reading was always a journey into the wonderful.

I'm not a book collector in the traditional sense, in that I don't collect rare books. But I do go out of my way to find copies of the books I had as a kid, and to this day I find myself reading and re-reading them to recapture all that sense of wonder.

I can't remember my parents reading to me (but I can't remember not being able to read, so surely they read to me, and that's how I learned . . . ?), except when they made a pointedly special effort about the time my younger brother was born (I remember that because it was so obvious that they were trying not to make me feel left out), but my mom always took me to the library and just let me "have at it." She never censored or tried to force my hand in my choices, for which I'm extremely grateful.

There was another book my grandmother used to read to me as a kid. It was about a bird who made its nest in a baseball field and all the players played around her. It was a cute little book and I still grin when I think about it. It was an old old book I have it some where :)

Neither of My Parents read to me, I became an avid reader because of my Librarian in Jr. High. Strangely enough, I gravitated to the same style that my Father read. My Stepson also reads SciFi. Sometimes I wonder about the Nuture Vs. Nature Question

Oh, and By the way, the First Book I read to my son was Treasure Island followed by The Hobbit. Our first Grandchild is due soon, My Wife and son have already told me that I have to do it again. I also have to use "The Voices" .

Given your username here on LT, I'm just going to believe that you are good at "The Voices".

I haven't read to my son but I will. :)

You can start anytime, the sound of your voice will be the magic ingredient. Besides, it will be good practice for you until the time comes when he is able to listen to the words. I bet you enjoy it as much as baby.

I found out with grandchildren that if you start from birth, the child just listens and learns that s/he doesn't need to grab for the book. If you wait too long, the book is a distraction for the baby and you end up struggling for possession of the book instead of having a pleasant story experience.
Then you have to wait another year or more till that grabbing everything phase is over.

I've been reading to Charlie from Day One. Actually since before that; I started reading aloud whatever I was reading myself when I was about 6 months pregnant. I was paranoid that I'd end up with a non-reader child and I don't know what I'd do with one of those. :)

I was thinking about since I usually get just enough money each year to get me SantaThing that this year I am going to put Sammy in instead of me. I have plenty of books that I haven't read yet and I really want to start getting a collection together for him. I have only like three books for him, I actually also been debating on reading Harry Potter to him... His rather young so I know he won't remember or anything but I wonder if me just reading to him would soothe him. I never really was one for reading out loud so it can also give me practice for when he does remember me doing it.

The World We Live In and The Sea Around Us were the books that I read over and over and over...

My mother read to me from a now very tattered Favorite Tales of Long Ago by Shirley Temple which included The Magic Fishbone, The Nightingale, The Valiant Little Tailor, and The Little Lame Prince. We also read the Brother's Grimm...the gory ones, we were taught the difference between reality and a story! There was also a very colorful Bible Book Storybook. I went to a public school that did not have a kindergarten so my mother taught me to read at age 4-5 using that Bible Storybook. Therefore, I was reading by myself at a young age. My children and now my grandchildren were read to from the day they were born. My 10 year old grandson reads all the Rick Riordan books and is now beginning The Prisoner in Cell 25. Sadly, I do have one non reader child and out of 5 one non reader grandchild; but 5 avid readers of 7 isn't bad!

Like many others I do not remember being read to, nor do I remember learning to read. However, I really remember the first books I was given, My Book House. A used 6 volume set that I was given one book at a time. A most treasured gift.

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen

I'm sure our parents would be devastated to know that we don't remember being read to, but I don't remember either. Somehow I think all of us who don't remember being read to must have been or we would never have turned into such avid readers.

Does anyone besides me remember the Chip Hilton series? I devoured them as a young teenager. I also had a large red book that was a compendium of stories and it introduced me to Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, and Gulliver as well as limericks and other types of poems. I kept it and my children loved it too, but I'm so sad that I could never interest my grandchildren in it.

Our parents never read to us. But with seven children spread over twenty years what are you going to do? My two younger brothers & I taught ourselves to read at an early age and our, (all three of us), favorite books were The Black Fawn by Jim Kjelgaard and Little Grey Men by BB, which we were given when I was in 2nd grade & the boys were 1st & K. Both of us who remain have copies of each. My baby brother has the originals.