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Reading is an Act of Love by Susan Hansen
I bought my first children’s book six years before my first baby was born. I was so anxious to share it with her, I propped it open on the side of her bassinet the day I brought her home from the hospital. I diligently turned the pages and moved the book from one side to the other, to make sure she was facing it when she opened her eyes. I was a bit disappointed that her first attempt to handle a book was to take it to her mouth and chew on it. But I didn’t let that stop me. I continued to hold her on my lap and show her the pictures and read the words on the pages. I figured she would realize that even though books were not for chewing on, they were wonderful things to hold and touch. Just a few days earlier I had stopped her from putting a dead cockroach in her mouth and I hoped my show of utter disgust and the violent flinging of the bug into the trash contrasted enough with my reaction to the book in the mouth that she would get the message: Cockroaches are bad!
Books are good! Of course, much later she realized there is a way to devour a book!
For twelve years I lived in a small town in Venezuela. My four children were born there. During those years, I witnessed the grand openings of the first Burger King, where they ran out of patties by noon, and McDonald’s, which came to be associated with fine family dining for the affluent. Even a Blockbuster Video opened across from the McDonald’s. I waited in vain for that most precious of American cultural institutions, the public library, to open a branch in my town. That never happened. But I knew what treasurers lay hidden in a public library. So when I would travel to Texas in the summers to visit my parents, I would take my children to the library, where I could check out thirty books at a time, spend hours reading them and go back for more the next day.
Reading to and with our children is a big family ritual that has continued well into adolescence and young adulthood. My husband read aloud all seven Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy to our kids. Most nights it even helped him fall asleep but no so much our children. We remember road trips by the books we listened to on tape while traveling. Once, we arrived home before the last chapter of Sarah Weeks’ So. B. It. We left the suitcases in the car but brought the last CD inside to finish listening. We sat around the player sobbing as the story came to an end.
When I want to give a very special gift, I try to find just the right book. To baby showers I take either Nancy Tillman’s Wherever Your Are: My Love Will Find You or The Crown on Your Head, two beautiful books on the power of unconditional love and the nobility of every human being born into this life. To brides and grooms to be, I give Carmen Agra Deedy’s Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale, a beautifully illustrated version of a traditional story from both Latin America and the Middle East, about finding just the right match. My ultimate reading gift of love is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. I can give it to a first grader, a teenager or an adult to say: To live is to love, or the other way around.
It had been a while since I had read to a small child on my lap. A friend and her eighteen-month old toddler were visiting the other day. The little boy noticed the picture book I had next to me on the floor. He handed me the book and ordered me to “Read!” He then placed himself on my lap to listen to the book. Although the book was not one that I would have chosen for his age and interest, he was such an expert book lover already that he paid careful attention as I turned each page and read. Someone had loved him enough to read to him everyday. For days afterwards, I thought about how my heart missed someone to share this love with.
Susan Hansen is an Instructional Coach for a Dual Language Program in Austin, Texas. She enjoys reading in English, Spanish and Farsi. To find out how she came to love public libraries, you can read her story at http://miningforhiddengems.blogspot.com/2011/06/woman-who-took-away-locks.html.
Nerdy Book Club 
Dear Susan,
After I read this current post on Nerdy Book Club today, I found my way to the post you wrote several years ago about being a child in Tehran and your experience at the school librar. I had goose bumps when I finished reading it….what a beautiful, thoughtful post.
I was shocked that there were no comments after it!
Maybe it struck a cord with me, because I am currently living in the Middle East and can certainly relate to your experience in Tehran in the late 70s….even though it is now 2013!
My husband and I are teachers and have been teaching in international schools for 20+ years. This is our second time that we have taught in an international school in Saudi Arabia.
Whereas, there is strong censorship here for books written by westerners, I think you will be happy to know about the beauty of technology, the e-book and the public library system in the States.
In just a few seconds, I can now easily download an ebook from my public library ( I have two cards—one from Austin, Texas where my daughter lives and one from Chico, California-where my mother lives) and it will appear on my kindle here in Jubail, Saudi Arabia!!!!!!
It is truly amazing—I can now get any book that is available on ebook from my public library and have it delivered to my kindle in Saudi Arabia.
Not many people would ‘get’ or appreciate how exciting/ important that is—but I have aa feeling that you would! ;-D
Thanks again for current post……and the one from several years ago
Patty of Arabia
Thank you for your encouraging comments. It is good to know that we now have the technology to breakdown any barriers to reading and knowledge.
I usually read the posts then either delete the post or put them into my NERDY file in my email to look back at later and buy more books! I have not been able to delete or move this post into the folder. I have read it many times sense it has been posted. Thank you for your wonderful words.
Beautiful. This post really resonates with me. I’m an avid reader myself, and I have two daughters aged 18 months and 4…. and we love. to. read. together.
Thank you for this – it’s beautiful.
What a lovely post. I, too, bought children’s books for my kids before they ever existed.
I’ve read The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge to both of them in the first week of their lives, and it will always be a special memory for me, especially with the first one. (I cried. He had no discerible opinion.)
My boys and I LOVED to have story time up until they hit middle school. Every night without fail. All kinds of books. To this day they are avid readers and I think more interesting people because of it. Greta blog, Susan
Susan, I could see hear your voice and your sincere passion for education and children in every line. What a beautifully written piece 🙂 t.d.
I am behind on reading my daily “Nerdies” so I just go to this lovely post. This post was like my life flashing before my eyes. (All except the living in Venezula part) My husband and I both still quote book quips from the years of reading to our boys. My Dad and I would take turns reading out loud to the family as I grew up. Most especially I remember a once in a lifetime trip to Italy with my Dad. We each , coincidentally, got on the plane for this trip with a copy of Dan Brown’s Demons and Angels. We would crash after a long day of sightseeing and secretly try to read further than the other. We would rise the next morning with scenes from the book dancing in our heads and guiding our next days romp through the streets of Rome to find the dramatic location. I have since lost my Dad, but carry my love of him tucked securely into every book I open.