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| The book that started it all |
"Once there was a witch who wanted to make pumpkin pie. So she planted a pumpkin seed. She weeded and watered, and after a while a sprout poked through. And then a pumpkin grew. And it grew. And it grew. And then it grew some more." (Big Pumpkin)
This morning I completed my 29th year of reading to children at Roselawn Elementary. Since 1996, when my own children were students there, I've been invited into various classrooms on a weekly basis to entertain children by reading them a story either from their library or from mine.
I blame Karen Schaff for getting me started. It was October 1996 and I was volunteering at Roselawn as we already had two children who were students there and in the next few years two more would follow their older siblings. Besides, Roselawn is right across the street from Refuge, the fellowship I serve, making it rather convenient to pop over for an hour or two during the day. Our son, Charlie, was in Mrs. Roth's room and so I was assisting in whatever way I could. Mrs. Schaff, Mrs. Roth's aide, was attempting to read Erica Silverman's Big Pumpkin to the littles but one of her charges was having something of a meltdown. Without warning, Mrs. Schaff stood up and thrust the book into my hands and said, “Here. Read this to them” as she got up to deal with the distraught child.
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| You've got to read this |
In case you're not aware of one of the greatest Halloween children's literature ever written Big Pumpkin is all about a witch who wants to make pumpkin pie on Halloween night. Unfortunately, she is unable to remove the pumpkin which hangs tenaciously to its vine and in succession enlists the help of a ghost, a vampire, a mummy, and last but not least, a bat, to aide her to get it off. I had never read the book before let alone heard of it but there I was with a captive audience of 15 or so kindergartners to entertain. So as I read I quickly came up with a different voice for each character and kept them separate from the narrator's voice as well. It was, if you will, a big splash and the beginning of what's now become thirty years of story-telling.
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| Here's to hot-buttered toast |
Through the years that we had children at Roselawn I was reading to grades K-5 in 15-minute read-aloud slots. During my “down” times as I awaited my time to read, I would peruse the Roselawn Library in search of books and/or stories that could artfully be read in a quarter-hour segment (as great as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is to read it in 15-minute doses takes way too long especially for a weekly gig). Over the decades as teachers have retired or moved on to other assignments, my audience has shrunk significantly to primarily Kindergartners now (with Mr. Schommer's First Grade class as an outlier). But “the pay is the same” and so wherever there's been an invitation over the years I've gone and sought to bring joy to children through the art of reading.
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| This'll preach |
Along the way I've discovered wonderful authors – William Joyce
(Santa Calls), Margie Palatini (Piggie Pie), Kate Dicamillo (The Mercy Watson series) and Heidi McKinnon (I just ate my friend) to name a handful – and even more wonderful children who treat me as a rock star as I enter their room. I don't do it as a means to recruit families to our fellowship. I simply do it for the love of reading to children and the joy it brings me. I have it on good authority that the joy has been mutual.
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| I've gotten lots of fan mail |
I'll miss my weekly excursions across the street for the next few months. But before you know it, it'll be September again and soon I'll be back at it on Wednesday mornings opening the cover of Mark Teague's delightful How I Spent My Summer Vacation kicking off a brand new year of read-alouds.
