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Did you read to your daughter as a child? What did you read?
Yes, I read so many things to her and her brothers. When she was small I read what felt like were hundreds of Little Golden Books. We read Babar, Madeline, alphabet books, and when she was older, we read through the Golden Encyclopedias we had, looking at the pictures, and feeling as if we were traveling the world through those books. I also invented stories for her. She remembers a series I made up that included a flying Oreo cookie.
Soon after my first granddaughter, Isabelle Eva, was born, I realized that although I loved her as fiercely as if she were my own child, I had no say --- in anything. She was mine but not mine. Emphasis on the not mine. In baseball parlance, it felt a little like being demoted from the starting lineup to the bench. Though this may seem both natural and obvious, I must admit that to me it came as something of a shock.
While many of my contemporaries were scheming how to sneak candy into their summer camp duffel bags (snip the seams of a stuffed animal, pull out cotton filler, insert Fun Dip, re-sew), my mom and I were contemplating the smuggling of another contraband: a newspaper subscription.
Not long after singing “Delta Dawn” in my rural grade school talent contest --- a throng of Conway Twitty look-alikes laughing into their cowboy hats --- my mother told me she was proud of me.
“You were true to yourself,” she said. “And that can only bring happiness.”
She then bought me a little, leather journal.
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The World Cup is just around the corner, so here's a list of soccer/football books to get you ready for the global even in South Africa!
When Bookreporter.com approached me about interviewing my mother and me for this issue, I was so flattered --- and a bit melancholy. My mother passed away in 1992. Still, I wanted to contribute to this project --- but what to do? Pull a Norman Bates and speak for my dearly departed Mom?
Inga Wiehl was an immigrant from Denmark who learned to read English along with her young daughter Lis, whose early love of mysteries helped pave the way for a successful career in law.
Did you read to your daughter as a child? What did you read?
Did you read to your daughter as a child? What did you read?
Moms are great. They carry you around in their bellies for months, give painful birth to you, and then (hopefully) spend years caring for, worrying over and nurturing you until you're (hopefully) able to do all that life stuff for yourself.
My mother, Harriett Dallas, was the literary equivalent of a stage mother. She dragged her friends to my signings, pulled my books from bookstore shelves and placed them face out for better visibility, and she often interrupted my conversations with others on politics or business or whatever to ask, “Sandra, what’s your next book about?” She was my most loyal fan.
