I know how to read.
I know how to read thanks in part to Mrs. Dubois, who taught me to read in kindergarten.
It wasn’t easy. The word “the” confounded me for quite a while. No matter how many times Mrs. Dubois or my mother would tell me how to read the word, I would continually read it as “TAH-HE.”
I was five years old at the time, but I can still remember and even feel the frustration. I also remember my three year old sister being able to read the word before me, which did nothing for my ego.
Little did I or anyone else know that I would eventually grow up to become the author of eight books and counting.
The book that I first read in that kindergarten book was called “Sun Up.” I was a basal reader about Bing and Sandy, a cat and dog, and their many adventures. As a child, I read the book so often that decades later, I still have large portions of that book memorized. Curious, I decided to try to find the book online.
It didn’t take long.
I purchased two copies on “Sun Up” and sent one to my sister, who shares the same intense, nostalgic memory of our childhood as me. Opening the book was like stepping back into the past for me. The very first page, containing the very first sentence – “The sun was up.” – hurtled me back to those kindergarten days. I suddenly saw the classroom in my mind’s eye with incredible clarity, but even better, the memory of reading those words and the feelings they engendered landed right back in my heart.
On page 25, Sandy meets a “big bug” and is frightened by its size. Sandy runs away and the bug gives chase. As I read those simple words, I so clearly recalled reading these words as a small boy, feeling both frightened and excited by the moment.
The enormity of the bug. The size of its mandibles. The flight of Sandy in the opposite direction.
Today it’s a couple simple sentences. Back then, it was suspense, excitement, and thrill. Breathless adventure that I adored. One of the first moments when I fell in love with reading.
Finding this artifact of my childhood, from my very first year in school, has been one of my best purchases in a long, long time. The opportunity to hold the book in my hands that first helped me learn to read has been amazing. To be suddenly and unexpectedly reminded and even filled with some of the joy and excitement of those kindergarten days was better than any gift I could imagine. Remembering the pride I felt in finally being able to read that first hard-to-read word – “the” – filled me with happiness.
Every time I pluck this book off the shelf and flip through the pages, I am transported to Mrs. Dubois’s perpetually sunny, always happy, constantly exciting kindergarten classroom. Having never attended preschool, kindergarten was a big step for me into the wider world, and this book, “Sun Up,” was oddly an enormous part of that step.
It was my first step to becoming a reader, and as a result, my first real, no joke step to becoming an author.
I’m so happy to have it by my side once again.
