Written for Bluebell Books Short Story Slam Week 13, inspired by their picture prompt provided below:
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| Blue Bell Books Short Story Slam Week 13 |
When you were small we had our nightly ritual:
After supper and before lights out
I would sit on the edge of your bed and
read you a story --‘Good-Night Moon,’
‘The Velveteen Rabbit,’ ‘The Adventures of Pooh’
Still hear your little voice echo “One more time, mommy…”
Soon enough you started school, learning to read
and reading to me. But after homework lessons,
you would still ask me to read to you for a while.
We graduated to chapter books:
the ‘Happy Hollister’ mysteries from my childhood,
the wonderful poetry of Shel Silverstein.
We travelled to Middle Earth alongside Bilbo Baggins,
Frodo and Samwise. No matter I couldn’t speak elvish--
I would change my voice for each character and make up
tunes for each song, and we would be on our way over the
Misty Mountains on our quest to destroy the ring.
In Middle School you met a young man named Harry Potter,
who paralleled you in age. Yet another quest: protect friends
and loved ones and defeat the evil Voldermort.
We shared these stories too, though now you would
read first--devouring from cover to cover non-stop,
then passing along to me. I loved our discussions--
what we liked or didn’t, and where we thought
the next book in the series might take us.
In High School you discovered my old Stephen King
books on the bookshelf, and read them all, then
added even more to the collection. And every so
often, you would revisit Middle Earth again,
J.R.R. Tolkien a perennial favorite.
I count among my greatest achievements
instilling the love of the written word in you.
No money is ever wasted that is spent on a book.
Our next great adventure lies in Winterfell,
as we share the series “A Game of Thrones”
“One more time, mommy…”
Indeed!
© Ginny Brannan October 2011
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| G.Brannan, personal collection, 1990 |
Photo of my son with winning artwork and gift certificate from Waldenbooks, with which he chose Charlie the Caterpillar!
That's a delightful reminder of our role as 'storyreader'! I loved the references to LOTR.
ReplyDeleteJamie
Beautiful, Ginny! Nice job on both counts--this write and instilling the love to read in your child. My boys both love to read, and I am so glad! Sherry and I read every day.
ReplyDeletehttp://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/sup-wit-dat/
Ginny! I left the wrong link! Here is my Bluebell Books entry: http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/my-very-own-angel/
ReplyDeleteawesome job putting this together.
ReplyDeletehttp://anthonyfrando.net/2011/10/27/poem-magical-mystery-tree/
A child can never be read to enough. It's wonderful to create a hunger in them for good books. I like your writing, too.
ReplyDeleteWonderful Ginny...I am being reminded of these great times each day now that I am reading to Mason. Found a box of books we had saved from when Mat and Ali were young and it is so great to see Mason react to the same stories.
ReplyDeletethoughtful,creative, and magical.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the amazing building up of your tale, and the mention of happy potter.
A lovely story...the gift of reading passed on and the gift to write..My world would be so narrow without my books
ReplyDeletea series of adventures,
ReplyDeletewell laid out lines.
;)
This is wonderful... and absolutely, no money is ever wasted in buying a book. There is no greater legacy than love of the written word! :-)
ReplyDeleteIndeed, how appropos for our current economic upheavals is the "Game of Thrones" you have upcoming with your son! I have already been imagining the boards of directors and officers of Wall Street firms being "gamed" out of their self-made thrones, landing on those other types of thrones we all have in our homes! And what a worthy creature is Charlie the Caterpillar. I can see your good influence!
ReplyDelete