How Reading Shaped My Life
By Ani Ekmekchyan
I didn’t like to read much when I was younger. My mother would teach me simple words like “cat,” and “dog,” but I never liked to read. I wanted everything to be easy for me, yet learning to read wasn’t as easy as I thought. I liked to have books read to me, but I didn’t like to read it myself. My mother would read me a new Dr. Seuss book everyday, just so I would read it, but it never worked. I memorized the entire book of, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut, by Dr. Seuss. When my mother had herd me she had gotten so happy I learned to read, but really it was me who memorized it.
When I turned 7 years old, my grandma gave me a book, for my birthday called Corduroy, by Don Freeman. I was expecting a Barbie doll or Princess toys, but instead I had gotten a book. Once I opened the gift I was speechless, I just opened the book and gave it a “look.”
“What’s wrong, you don’t like it?” She asked me
“ No, grandma it’s not that I don’t like it I just don’t like reading, I just like the photos.” I explained to her
“ You’ll thank me one day.” She said
I didn’t understand what she meant by “ You’ll thank me one day.” Once I
learned how to read fluently, I fell in love with Corduroy, and I kept on wanting to read it. I thought it was the most wonderful book ever, and I never wanted to put the book down.
Corduroy was a teddy bear that lives on a shelf in a department store. One night, he climbs down from his shelf in search of a missing button. Sine, that day, a little girl wanted to buy him, but her mother pointed out that his overalls were missing a button. He wants so badly to go home with the little girl. So that night, after all the shoppers had gone home and the store was dark, so he decided to go on an adventure in search of his button. Once he enters the furniture department he notices a button on a mattress. He pulls and pulls, releasing the button. The following day, the little girl returns and sees his button was...