We’re thrilled to bring you a story from Loreen Leedy today! Sally loves using her books in the classroom!

When I was about 5 years old, I remember pestering my father to read books to me. In particular I liked the Pogo cartoon books… although the political content was far above my age, the animal characters were appealing. At some point I grew impatient to read by myself. My mother was born in the 1920s and still had an old primer from that era. It started with the alphabet, then simple words, then sentences, then short stories. I would sprawl on the living room floor working my way through the primer, calling out to my mom if something unintelligible came up… for example, “What does P-U-R-P-L-E spell?” She would answer from whatever room she was in (usually the kitchen) and I would keep going.

By the time first grade started, I already knew how to read, and found the “Look, look” text of the Dick and Jane books to be B-O-R-I-N-G! Fortunately my teacher got more advanced books for me to read and we visited the library often.

I still have a little paragraph written in 3rd grade:
“My Hobby
My hobby is reading. I like to read thick books.”

It’s still true today!

Loreen Leedy is the author and illustrator of over 30 innovative picture books for children with math, science, and language arts content. Her 2008 books are MISSING MATH: A NUMBER MYSTERY (Marshall Cavendish) and CRAZY LIKE A FOX: A SIMILE STORY (Holiday House). Her web site is:
http://www.loreenleedy.com

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 13th, 2008 at 12:03 am

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