My family wasn’t around a lot when I was younger. My mom and dad both worked full time jobs, and the age gap between my sisters and I made it hard for us to enjoy spending time together. I’ve always felt that the big age gap between me and everyone in my family always affected our closeness. They all seemed so grown up, understanding things that I had yet to grasp, and doing things that I wasn't able to do. I longed to be able to be as grown up as the rest of my family. I felt the need to be closer to them and to be able to connect with them the way they seemed to connect with each other. Reading was how I hoped to do that.
Everyone in my family was a reader except for my dad. My sisters loved to read whatever books were popular among teens during that time, usually involving some kind of romance or fantasy world. My mom would read anything from Pride and Prejudice to Harry Potter. I wanted to read just like them. They were always talking about the different books they had read and recommending to each other which book they should read next. I wanted to be able to read the books that they were reading and get to be a part of their never ending book exchange. According to my parents, I was a very quick learner. Considering how much I wanted to know how to read, it didn’t surprise me. In preschool I was so excited to learn the alphabet that I would get upset that we only learned a letter a day. When I mastered picture books, I was so ecstatic that my mom bought me my own books to read to her at night. I even won an award in kindergarten for having the best reading scores in the class. I don’t know what I did in order to receive that award, but I just know that I was extremely proud of it. My favorite books to read were the Junie B Jones books. They were the books that my mom would read to me every night before I learned how to read myself. The time that I spend with my mom reading every night was very precious to me because I loved the quality time it gave us. I felt closer to my mom because we could talk about the books. Even after I learned how to read by myself, she would still come tuck me in and I would read the books to her. They also contained the first character that I felt extremely connected to. I …show more content…
She was in kindergarten (which was the same grade I was in) and later in 1st grade. It was in the point of view of Junie, so it showed her struggles in growing up, learning in school, making friends, and figuring out the world. There were times that she felt disconnected from her parents, which was something that I felt all the time. I saw so much of myself in her, that I couldn’t get enough of the books. She was the first character that I ever felt a real connection with. I remember reading different moments in the book and seeing myself in those same situations. I finally felt that I had someone that understood me. One of the main things Junie struggled with in the books was being misunderstood. I related to that so much because I felt like nobody really understood
Everyone in my family was a reader except for my dad. My sisters loved to read whatever books were popular among teens during that time, usually involving some kind of romance or fantasy world. My mom would read anything from Pride and Prejudice to Harry Potter. I wanted to read just like them. They were always talking about the different books they had read and recommending to each other which book they should read next. I wanted to be able to read the books that they were reading and get to be a part of their never ending book exchange. According to my parents, I was a very quick learner. Considering how much I wanted to know how to read, it didn’t surprise me. In preschool I was so excited to learn the alphabet that I would get upset that we only learned a letter a day. When I mastered picture books, I was so ecstatic that my mom bought me my own books to read to her at night. I even won an award in kindergarten for having the best reading scores in the class. I don’t know what I did in order to receive that award, but I just know that I was extremely proud of it. My favorite books to read were the Junie B Jones books. They were the books that my mom would read to me every night before I learned how to read myself. The time that I spend with my mom reading every night was very precious to me because I loved the quality time it gave us. I felt closer to my mom because we could talk about the books. Even after I learned how to read by myself, she would still come tuck me in and I would read the books to her. They also contained the first character that I felt extremely connected to. I …show more content…
She was in kindergarten (which was the same grade I was in) and later in 1st grade. It was in the point of view of Junie, so it showed her struggles in growing up, learning in school, making friends, and figuring out the world. There were times that she felt disconnected from her parents, which was something that I felt all the time. I saw so much of myself in her, that I couldn’t get enough of the books. She was the first character that I ever felt a real connection with. I remember reading different moments in the book and seeing myself in those same situations. I finally felt that I had someone that understood me. One of the main things Junie struggled with in the books was being misunderstood. I related to that so much because I felt like nobody really understood