In fifth grade, I decided to make it my goal to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Yes, I realize this isn’t the first book and when reading series we should start at the beginning, but I was in fifth grade, my idea of a series was a bunch of short stories put in different books with no connection to the past short stories or the future short stories other than the characters. Anyway, I chose the Harry Potter book because both of my older sisters knew all the movies that had been released at the time. They were nine and twelve years older than me and I just wanted to catch up and fit in. Neither one of them resembled me at all and they both had repeatedly and constantly convinced me that I was adopted. Well, in my attempts to be more like my older sisters, which were more aimed towards proving to myself that we were related, my mother decided that suddenly Harry Potter was the devil’s work and witchcraft and would bring evil into the house. I received the longest speech about it that any fifth grader had ever had to sit through. So basically my mother terrified me and mentally scarred me so that I avoided the entire shelf that those books rested in. That was basically the only fantasy section in the entire school library, so I didn’t read much else that year. Although I stopped reading for an extracurricular activity, my reading level was still high. By sixth …show more content…
However, school has required some very interesting articles that I could classify as sugar cookies for the mind. My English Teacher, Mrs. Granzen, has always brought forth new ideas and perspectives through her teachings. She allows us to find a perspective of our own whilst exposing us to hundreds of different perspectives already in existence. I had never been placed in such a free environment. I had never been allowed to think freely and then actually voice what I thought before. She has rekindled the most amazing love for learning in me, which was only an ember before. The level of enjoyment I’ve had from her class exceeds any level outside of school. Reading has always been easy for me, as has writing, but honing those skills is something I have only done recently, because although it was easy, it wasn’t fun. Mrs. Granzen makes reading enjoyable because she roots it into things we feel passionately about and allows us to decide how we feel without being pressured into it. That is the purpose of reading. To find your own perspectives through attaining more knowledge on the