The Book Doctor
I’m not a physician but I've done my share of prescribing lately. Now don’t get excited. I don’t write scripts for valium or Lipitor. It’s much better than all that stuff. We’re talking books. Life-changing, emotionally rejuvenating, health promoting books. Just the right book for just the right person. This blog post is about an eleven year old girl named Samantha Jo and a healthy dose of prescriptions.
On Thanksgiving Day, I had told my niece that the perfect book would be waiting at my house. Sammy Jo is not in love with reading…yet. But she’s getting there. I can feel it. She just hasn’t read that amazing book that will set everything in motion for her. But after the turkey and pumpkin cheesecake were devoured, I told her that once she finished the book, we’d plan a shopping date together, just the two of us ( a little incentive couldn’t hurt, right?).
So Sammy Jo nestled in my favorite over-sized “reading” chair and started reading Hugging The Rock by Susan Taylor Brown. This book has been devoured by many of my middle school reluctant readers so I had faith that it would do the job for Sammy Jo. I watched her expression change from indifferent to engrossed to teary eyed to ……SHE FINISHED THE BOOK! In less than two hours, she read that book from cover to cover. And she loved it. I asked her some questions just to be sure she understood some of the content. She was not only able to answer my questions pertaining to the characters and plot, she spoke eloquently about the challenges the main character faced. And low and behold, as we had our casual book talk, Sammy’s mom quietly snatched the book and began reading it, too.
This positive reading experience gave her the gumption to choose her next book, Fault in Our Stars. She loved this one, too. Now, she’s reading Wonder and has deep empathy for Auggie, the main character.
It took her reading more than a few duds and experimenting with different genres for my niece to finally come to realize what an exhilarating ride reading can truly be when you put your hands on the right book.
And I’m starting to wonder how many shopping sprees and lunch dates this auntie can afford because my prescriptions have created a reading superstar.
I’m not a physician but I've done my share of prescribing lately. Now don’t get excited. I don’t write scripts for valium or Lipitor. It’s much better than all that stuff. We’re talking books. Life-changing, emotionally rejuvenating, health promoting books. Just the right book for just the right person. This blog post is about an eleven year old girl named Samantha Jo and a healthy dose of prescriptions.
On Thanksgiving Day, I had told my niece that the perfect book would be waiting at my house. Sammy Jo is not in love with reading…yet. But she’s getting there. I can feel it. She just hasn’t read that amazing book that will set everything in motion for her. But after the turkey and pumpkin cheesecake were devoured, I told her that once she finished the book, we’d plan a shopping date together, just the two of us ( a little incentive couldn’t hurt, right?).
So Sammy Jo nestled in my favorite over-sized “reading” chair and started reading Hugging The Rock by Susan Taylor Brown. This book has been devoured by many of my middle school reluctant readers so I had faith that it would do the job for Sammy Jo. I watched her expression change from indifferent to engrossed to teary eyed to ……SHE FINISHED THE BOOK! In less than two hours, she read that book from cover to cover. And she loved it. I asked her some questions just to be sure she understood some of the content. She was not only able to answer my questions pertaining to the characters and plot, she spoke eloquently about the challenges the main character faced. And low and behold, as we had our casual book talk, Sammy’s mom quietly snatched the book and began reading it, too.
This positive reading experience gave her the gumption to choose her next book, Fault in Our Stars. She loved this one, too. Now, she’s reading Wonder and has deep empathy for Auggie, the main character.
It took her reading more than a few duds and experimenting with different genres for my niece to finally come to realize what an exhilarating ride reading can truly be when you put your hands on the right book.
And I’m starting to wonder how many shopping sprees and lunch dates this auntie can afford because my prescriptions have created a reading superstar.
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