Reading Groupies

As another school year winds to a close, I’m always reminded of my own school days.  I started kindergarten in September 1979–the heyday of reading groups–but it wasn’t until the following year that my classmates and I were divided into small groups for reading instruction.

photo hijacked from hungarianamerican.org

Photo from hungarianamerican.org

I always felt a bit of anxiety at the start of each school year when my new teacher would go around the room and have us read passages aloud from a book to check our fluency.  Would I stumble on easy words and find myself in the lowest group?  Would I be placed in a group that was too advanced for me because I was given an easy passage to read?  Fluency tests were fraught with peril.

Though only kids, we were savvy and easily saw through the reading group names, determining the fast readers from the slower ones.  Reading was like a competitive sport at my elementary school, and it was all about level placement.

My 4th grade teacher, an aging hippie with hand-t00led leather belts and handbags, favored bird names for her reading groups.  I seem to recall The Blue Jay group, The Starling group, and The Booby group.

In 5th grade, my teacher was a die-hard football fan and named her groups after NFL teams.  The Giants, The Saints, and The Browns.  Really now?  The Browns?!!?  Don’t hate on the slower readers or anything.

Thankfully, those days are looong over and my reading group anxiety has quieted.  These days I spend my time worrying that my students won’t enjoy the books, plays, and poetry I select for them to read.

My parents have always been avid readers and read to my sister and me each night when we were kids.  I went on to become a rabid reader, but as much as I’d like to credit my parents and DNA for my book addiction, I never could have spiraled so out of control without the help of another (book) pusher: my elementary school librarian.

My librarian was the antithesis of any I had met before or since.  Miss F. was a hippie, a folk singer, an actress, a book nut, a creative genius, and book marketer extraordinaire.  This woman could, just by reading a few pages, turn a group of relatively sedate third graders into savage beasts, clawing and frothing as she raffled off a copy of The Stories Julian Tells.

She  wore long, flowery skirts and clogs, used different voices when reading or telling stories, and played the guitar with finger picks, plucking out snappy ditties about  the Dewey Decimal System, some hound dogs, or Halloween creatures.  Despite her unorthodox approach and style, looking back it’s easy to see how forward-thinking Miss F. was.  She was hyping multicultural literature long before any other schools.  Her pre- and post-reading techniques were ahead of their time in the early 80s–things I went on to learn in my own college Kid Lit courses 15 years later.

She introduced me to Daniel Pinkwater, the Cam Jansen series, Beverly Cleary, and a book about a little girl who was always being mistaken for a little boy.  This book was big news because there was a drawing of (gasp!) the boys’ bathroom–complete with a urinal–the stuff of legend when you’re an 8-year-old girl!

After I left grammar school in 1985, Miss F. moved on and authored a well-known book on Kid Lit and continued teaching on a university level.  She’s since published several more books and travels the world lecturing as a Children’s Literature Consultant.

Her love of reading and positive influence has stayed with me for 30 years–from our first meeting back in 1979 when I was in kindergarten–until today.  So, even though National Librarian Day isn’t until April 16th, I wanted to take time and thank my elementary school librarian for playing such an integral part in shaping my life as a reader and book blogger.

Is there anything more nostalgic than old-school holiday television specials?  I remember waiting not-so-patiently each year to see all the holiday classics.  My husband and I haven’t seen them in years and I decided to remedy that last night.  I hopped on to the bed next to my ailing hubby, who was sick all weekend, and queued up the Charlie Brown and Fat Albert Halloween specials on YouTube. 

We were glued to the diminutive iPhone screen, reliving some of the best moments of our childhoods.  I never realized how much adult humor and references are in cartoons–stuff that I was oblivious to as a kid. 

Even though it’s not technically book related, be sure to catch a Halloween special or two before the big day on Saturday.

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