Submitted by: Marty Kennedy, BookSpring Volunteer
Remember when, as a child, you realized for the first time there was something beyond the limited world of yourself? Outside the house, city, state, country and earth where you lived? Could it have been when you noticed the twinkle of numberless stars in the night sky? Or, possibly, when you bore the responsibility of your first pet? I witnessed that special moment in my grandson’s life.
What sparked his discovery? All it took was a book.
From the first word he read, I saw his wonderment and enthusiasm. It ignited possibilities which had not occurred to his young mind. That experience provided curiosities he continues to nurture, as a teenager, today.
Reading will always point to horizons he never knew existed. It opens his heart to ideas and challenges. It feeds his hunger to learn. Reading will continue to mold him as an individual; and us, as a people.
I don’t recall the title of my grandson’s first book. It might have been The Cat In The Hat or, maybe, Goodnight Moon. Whichever it was, I will always be grateful for the gift of reading.
