by Olivia Underwood
“So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.” Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth is full of fun and wise advice such as this. As a young child I heard this book from my father as he read out loud this imaginative, funny, wonderful story. The humor of Juster’s world influenced me as I grew and each time I read it I find something new to love. Remembering my favorite childhood book made me wonder what kind of stories and books had influenced my friends as children. Did they still remember them? Did they still love them? How important is what we read to our children?
“When I was younger my parents read me Possum Came a Knockin’, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? And The Hungry Caterpillar,” remembers Erica Sheeran, a junior at PCHS. “They made me happy and put me to sleep.”
The stories we read to our children can have huge effects on their lives. Erica says, “They made me a reader.”
We have to be aware of what we are reading to our kids, it’s just as important as what they’re watching. But that does not mean we should stop the time together, the words we read aren’t the only thing that children hear. They also hear the love it takes to sit down and spend time with them, and their imaginations flourish under that love.
“Of course I’ll read to my kids!” Erica says. “It makes them think.”
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