My Beloved Mother

     Let me introduce you to my mother Stacey, who I cited in a previous post as the positive influence on my literacy journey.

 

    She's been an elementary school teacher for thirty years now, so she has a good grasp of what's appropriate for children to read. She would take me to the county library to check out the Magic Treehouse books or the Junie B. Jones series, or whatever else caught my eye. Every time the scholastic book fair came to my school, she would let me buy as many books as I wanted. I was pushed to get as many A.R. — accelerated reading — test points as possible.

    I would get mad at her when she forbade me to read something I was interested in, especially if it was something Dad was okay with. Looking back now, I understand she was doing what was best for me. Mom knew that even though I could comprehend certain books meant for older audiences, I wasn't mentally mature enough to handle them. Keep this stored in your mind for comparison when you read this post about my dad's influence on my literacy journey.