It is always a happy day when a parent can pass down an obsession to their child. Reading just happens to be one of mine. So you can imagine how pleased I was to take Signe on her field trip to the library to get her very own library card. A month or so ago I realized that I hadn't been reading obsessively to Signe like I had with Hannah at her age. One day I asked her, "Signe, would you like me to read to you?" She looked at me and smiled, then said, "No." quite pleasantly and ran off to play. I was shocked. What child doesn't want to be read to? Luckily, it was not a lasting state of mind and recently she has developed a love of being read to. She has even written a couple stories, just like her sister loves to do. (Though they largely consist of fairies, mermaids, my little ponies and care bears--combined!)
Of course I am thrilled, because "I have always imagined that paradise would be a kind of library." - Jorge Luis Borges. So we went to the library and after the librarian read a couple stories and talked to the children about how to care for their books they signed the new cards and went to pick out books. A friend of mine laughed as Signe randomly picked out books and brought them to me while her daughter debated over which book would be best. You can look at this two ways: she didn't really care that much about what we read, or, all books are great and reading is just FUN! I choose to go with the latter.
If she is anything like me when she gets older she will quickly learn that Henry Ward Beecher had it right when he said "Where is human nature so weak as in the book store?" Except perhaps in a Banana Republic store!
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