Reading EVERY Word

Kalisha loves to read. She currently has at least 15 books checked out from the library.

 The stack on the table are the ones she is currently reading. I have written in the past how she reads 5-6 books at a time; one chapter in each one and then she starts with the first one again when it is her next 'reading time.'
She has certain times during the day when she has to read.
She also likes to read aloud. That is ok with me, most of the time. If we are watching TV together, she reads aloud during commercials, then she closes the book until the next commercial. If it is a program she doesn't care about watching, she reads to herself between commercials so I can watch it. I don't watch many programs, but as we watched the Colts game yesterday, she would read during every commercial. It is a bit annoying but probably better than the commercials anyway.

 

The ones she hasn't started yet are in her bookbag. They are there because her mother gets tired of seeing 15 books on the floor by the chair or couch.

If you are regular readers of this blog, you already know those facts. However, last week, she amazed me. She really does like words and perhaps the sound of the words swirling in her head.
I purchased a paperback for me to read this Christmas season. It is 4 stories, loosely connected from one generation to the next. It has no pictures, very small print and 397 pages. Kalisha asked if she could read it. I said, "Of course, but it might be boring for you." (I had not read it yet so I was hoping there weren't any steamy love scenes in it)

I really didn't think she would finish it and I wasn't sure if she would 'get it.'

When she used to read books I had read, such as Little House on the Prairie and Boxcar Children, I would occasionally quiz her to see if she had retained any of it. She could nearly always, give me a fairly accurate, Cliff Notes version.

She stuck with this book. She read every word, probably 50,000 at least. I was impressed. I read it one afternoon (when I start, I finish, if it holds my interest) and later asked her a few questions about some of the events. She didn't know the answers. That's when I realized part of her reading is just to see and hear the words in her head, even if the sentence structure may be difficult. This novella would have been difficult for her because due to the time periods, there were words she has probably never seen or heard. I praised her for finishing it. I don't think I would read that many chapters of something I didn't understand. It would be similar to reading a medical journal for most of us. She is my daughter for sure; she loves words. YAY

Reading

Kalisha has always loved pictures and words. I would occasionally entertain her during the church service by getting out every photograph in my billfold. She would scrutinize them over and over. At home, she would take a package of newly developed pictures and spread them all out on the floor, like she was going to play Concentration.

She was careful with them and would crawl around the perimeter of her pictures and examine them for hours.
Perhaps the pictures were the driving force behind her love of reading. She started by 'reading' the pictures in books or making up her own version of the story.

When her nieces and nephews were very little, she would read to them every chance she got or when she convinced them to set still long enough.
Unfortunately, they all got older and learned to read better than Kalisha, so she continued to read aloud, but for herself.

She has never lost her love of books. She learned how to find and reserve books at the library. On one occasion, (she was in her teens) I noticed that some of the books she was bringing home from the library had flourescent pink labels attached to them. I asked what that meant. She told me they were national library loans. Not knowing what that was, she explained that when the book she wanted was not available at any of the public library branches in our city, they had to get it from somewhere else in the country.
I didn't even know that was possible and asked her how she knew it. She told me that she just told the 'library people' that she had to have those books, and they told her how to get them. Perhaps I should have a little of her tenacity.
The reason she HAD to have them is because she reads all of the books in a series, and could not go on with the series until she had the next one. She has read every Disney book, all of the Full House series, the Michelle series, the Boxcar Children series and then the Baby Sitter Club series. There are 143 Baby Sitter Club books. (I know!) After she finished all 143 from the library, she started a quest to own all of them. She searched E-Bay, the Half Price bookstore, Borders and Barnes and Noble. She didn't care if they were used; she just needed them all!!!
All of her books have to be kept in numerical order on her bookshelves and they go back on the shelves in the right order. After she finally got all of them (a great deal from Borders, but that will be another post) she started reading them all over again from #1. Remember that she had just read all 143 from the library. If you have ever read a Baby Sitter Club book, you know that every one starts out with the telling of how the baby sitters club got started. So, if it were you or me, we would skip that part and get to the story. Not Kalisha! She reads every word in every book. How do I know that? She reads out loud. (I can almost recite the beginning of the books) AND she has a reading ritual. Same times, every day, AND she reads 6 or more books at a time. One chapter in each book, until she has read a chapter in all 6 plus. How does she remember what is going on in each book? I don't have a clue!
Right now, she is not only reading 6 Baby Sitter Club books, but she is also reading 4 Diary Of A Wimpy Kid books. Over the years, she has been given cute laminated bookmarks by people who know her love of reading. Does she use them? No! She uses paper Monopoly money. Don't ask me for an explanation. I frankly don't care.

If you happen to come into the room in the middle of her reading time, she will read to herself, but would rather that you leave so she can read aloud again.
I am not certain how much she retains, but she can usually give an overview of the contents of a book. If you listen to her read (sometimes, it is impossible not to) you realize that she reads fast and if she comes to a word she can't pronounce, she just picks out a few of the letters and makes a new word.