Create memories around reading

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It was just your average Tuesday night. I was crawling around Allison's playroom, making the fuzzy green puppet's mouth move and singing with as much gusto as I could muster:

"Alligator pie, alligator pie,

If I don't get some I think I'm gonna die.

Give away the green grass, give away the sky,

But don't give away my alligator pie."

Sweet little Allison, all ready for bed in her little purple sleeper, laughed hysterically.

"Read ‘nother book," she begged.

Allison is just three and the adorable daughter of a good friend of mine. When I get the chance to babysit her, I'm as excited as she is. A large part of the night always stems around books (I'm a publisher, indoctrinate them young, I say) and Dennis Lee's Alligator Pie is her favourite. She also loves New Brunswick writer Sheree Fitch's There's A Mouse in My House! and Dr. Seuss's Cat in a Hat.

Reading to little kids may be fun for them, but it's a high point of the day for most adults, too. Who wouldn't enjoy the undivided attention of a toddler, waiting anxiously to hear what you say next and the sheer joy of giggling to words that make no sense to her at all? It really is more fun to give than to receive when it comes to kids and reading. And as summer rolls around now and the vacation season looms, there's never been a better time to make reading an integral part of family life.

Books can be expensive for the average family in our communities, but we are fortunate indeed to have great local public libraries to furnish us with endless great material. Both the L.P. Fisher Public Library in Woodstock and the Dr. Walter Chestnut Library in Hartland are offering Summer Reading Clubs again.

At the Fisher library, children in Grades 1 to 5 are invited to a special program every Tuesday from 2 to 3 p.m. called "What's bubbling at your library." Emma and her band of adventurers guide the young scientists through the many wonders of our scientific world. For the younger children, aged two to kindergarten, each Wednesday from 10 to 11 a.m. there is a special reading program. The library is also thinking about offering a French language summer program for children. If you want to participate in any of these great initiatives, call 325-4778.

At the Hartland library, their Summer Reading Club is up and running every Wednesday from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Until July 11, you can also take in an amazing exhibit on the history of the Hartland salmon pool. As well, their book and plant sale is currently on with proceeds going to the Library Building Fund.

These are great initiatives on behalf of the librarians, and they enjoy interacting with the children. Likewise, parents and guardians who take the time during the longer days of summer to add a little "cuddle up with a book" time at the end of playtime will find it a special experience.

Children benefit the most. Education experts tell us that one of the best things a person can do for a child is read to them. Hearing calming, trusted voices going over familiar books is comforting even for babies who can't begin to understand the words yet. As the child gets older, they open up to the whole new world of picture books and rhymes.

Soon, they start to pick out words, to comprehend meanings, and to slowly and surely get ready for more formal learning programs in schools. With this solid basis, the youngsters have a head start on their education. Children who are read to normally have better-developed language skills and larger vocabularies.

Reading to a child also increases their attention span. They become less distracted and more capable of focusing on what is being said. Books make children curious, a key component for the learning process.

Most of all though, reading to a child enhances his or her desire to read.

There are many ways to bring books and reading into our children's lives this summer. Start with a reading at bedtime routine; enrol and participate in the Summer Reading Club at your library, and incorporate books and storytelling into family vacation activities.

I can still remember camping with a friend's family when I was 12 years old. We all sat around the campfire at night and her father said the fire would feel warmer if we took turns reciting a poem. It could be as simple as Roses Are Red, but all of us felt we had to participate. It was mildly interesting as everyone took a turn ... I at least summoned up a verse of Robert Frost and was feeling quite proud of myself for remembering a few lines from English class.

Then her father stood dramatically in the shadows of the fire and, I kid you not, recited the entire 15 stanzas of The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service. It was absolutely hilarious, he had a deep, deep voice and an actor's gift for drama, and we all shivered despite the warmth of the fire. I still remember going to the downtown library when I got home to find the full poem, and trying to memorize it myself.

So if you see me around a campfire this Canada Day week and I'm daydreaming for a minute, I'm probably stuck on the second stanza for lack of practice. But I do remember how it starts:

"There are strange things done in the midnight sun,

By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee."

Maybe when Allison's a little older I'll tell her the whole story and teach it to her. Then when winter follows inevitably after this warm summer, I will put a fire on some evening and we will share a laugh as soon as one of us says: "Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

That's another thing reading to a child does – it helps build great memories and passes on our culture and traditions.

Editor's Note: Jeanne Langille is publisher of the Bugle-Observer. Her column appears each Tuesday. You can reach her via e-mail at langille.jeanne@thebugle.ca or by regular mail sent to The Bugle-Observer, 110 Carleton St., Woodstock, N.B., E7M 1E4.