Meaningful Books

I have read some amazing books, but few that have touched me as deeply as the one I just finished.

You see, I was not a big reader when I was little.  In fact, my parents told me my little Italian grandmother would take books out of my hands and complain, “What does she need to read for, she’s a girl!”  I know, not P.C., but hey, she was born in Sicily, so be careful, she still has connections!

Now, I’ve got 3 books near my bed, one, no, make that, two by my favorite reading spot, and sometimes another one in my car.  This does not mean I’m a flake and can’t finish anything.  My ambitious goal is to read a book a week...some weeks are better than others. (And not novels, but personal development / leadership books, the kind that verbally beats you up in order to build you up. But I digress.)

Some people give credit for their love of reading to their kindergarten teacher.  My credit goes to my sons’ kindergarten teacher, Cindi Holman.  Somehow, she was able to get Jim Trelease,  author of The Read Aloud Handbook, to come to our school and do a presentation.  That night changed my life.  The proverbial pebble in the ocean that starts a ripple.

I had already been given the privilege of reading aloud to their class every week.  But, somehow,  his old-fashioned, 8 ½” x 11" floppy, well-worn vinyl slides and overly copied parent handouts pierced through my know-it-all brain and went straight to my heart...it was like the Winter Warlock’s icy heart melting in Santa Claus is coming to town.

After that, I looked at books, all books, and reading aloud, completely different. What wonders and worlds you could visit under your sleeping bag or curled up in your favorite chair with your dog at your feet?! And to think, he retired just 7 short years later!

So, for every week during the nine years our oldest son, AJ, was in school, and the nine years our son, Wesley, was in school, I read aloud.  I like to think it made a difference to those children.  I know for a fact, it made a BIG difference in my life.

You want to talk about something meaningful?  What Cindi Holman did for me was meaningful.  What Jim Trelease did for me was meaningful. What the teachers at St. Mark’s Lutheran School did for me was meaningful. What the beautiful and eager faces of every child I was honored to read to did for me was meaningful. And all of them did it without knowing they did it.

I feel so blessed for the experience.

Oh, and the name of the book I just finished?  WONDER, by R.J. Palacio.

Hurry and read that. I’m not kidding. I don’t care what age you are - READ IT!  It will touch your heart.  Better yet, read it and pass it along to touch someone else’s heart, like my friend, Rose Cooper, did with me.  Thanks, Rose.  That was very meaningful of you! :D

What books have you read that are meaningful?!  Please share.

“‘Greatness,’ wrote [Henry Ward] Beecher, ‘lies not in being strong, but in the right using of strength...He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts...’” excerpt from WONDER.