October 20, 1973. That was the day my world changed. We were driving down the Palisades Parkway. “It’s a beautiful day,” my mom said. The sun was shining and autumn was in its full splendor. I looked out at the blur of orange and yellow.
I was seven and a half and we were on our way to Columbia Presbyterian to get my glasses. I had recently had cataract surgery. (In my family, cataracts are congenital.) I’d been squinting my way through school and pretending to sharpen my pencil multiple times a day so I could sneak up and decipher what was on the blackboard.
On the way home, I looked out the window, and for the first time, I could see the individual leaves on the trees. “It is a beautiful day,” I said. My mom recalls that moment fondly.
What I recall is that I was finally able to read the book that had been given to me as a gift for being in the hospital. The Secret Garden. Though it’s been nearly four decades, I can still feel the magic of that story. Everything disappeared. There was just Mary Lennox, a vast stretch of moor, and a mysterious garden. She found her key, and I found mine. I don’t think my parents saw me without a book in hand for the next ten years.
If it hadn’t been The Secret Garden, it would have undoubtedly been another novel. I was hardwired to be a reader. But, wow, unlocking the gate to a secret garden was certainly an amazing way to become initiated into the Nerdy Book Club!
Corey Rosen Schwartz is the author of HOP! PLOP! (Walker, 2006), THE THREE NINJA PIGS (Putnam, 2012) GOLDI ROCKS AND THE THREE BEARS (Putnam, forthcoming) and NINJA RED (Putnam, forthcoming). Corey has no formal ninja training, but she sure can kick butt in Scrabble. She lives with three Knuckleheads in Warren, NJ. You can find her online at http://www.coreyrosenschwartz.com and on Twitter as @CoreyPBNinja. 
I’m not sure schools do eye tests anymore, but oh I wish they would! They might find other kids like you who would be reading & loving the books if only… Thanks for telling your story.
*sniff* The was be-au-ti-ful.
Of course I enjoyed reading about your Secret Garden moment, but two things stand out as making me feel we are somehow “kindred spirits”, as Anne would say:
“On the way home, I looked out the window, and for the first time, I could see the individual leaves on the trees.” I didn’t have congenital cataracts or require surgery, but had such severe astigmatism (discovered in a school test, Linda) that each six months as my prescription was changed I’d put on my glasses and take a walk to look at the tree tops. Time after time, the new glasses revealed that trees were not big green lollipops but were composed of individual leaves. And each time I remember the very first time I had been able to realize that fact.
The second link was “I was hardwired to be a reader.” I come from a family of readers, who deserve credit for “growing” us all as readers, but when asked to finish the sentence, “I am ______”, my first response is always – I am a reader.
I read your post quickly the other morning but did not have time to leave a comment; yet, I’ve been thinking of you riding down the Palasades Parkway and REALLY noticing ALL the beauty around you for the “first time.” I wonder if sometimes, those of us can “see” things clearly and have worlds filled with many, many books start to “take for granted” the beauty of life around us and the magic in books? Thank you for the reminder to not take for granted the gift of sight and the potential of words to transform lives.