The Magic of Reading

My daughter Emma is in the advanced reading class at school. Unfortunately she doesn’t really like to read. Well, books anyway. She’ll happily thumb through a magazine, sure. She’ll even get engrossed in a comic or graphic novel. She’s a good little geekling that way. But until recently I just couldn’t find a way to switch on her passion for books. It’s been rather distressing honestly.

As a child I was in the advanced reading class by second grade. By fifth grade I’d gone through most of the popular classics attractive for girls. I devoured everything the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott had ever written. I plowed through the collection of mid-century Young Adult series found in my Grandmother’s basement. Trixie Belden, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and even The Boxcar children all became good friends. (I drew the line at Cherry Ames, Student Nurse. I had no interest in little miss goody two shoes.)

Eventually I moved onto more current fiction, reading all the Newbery winners, and haunting the library for the new releases. I loved them all. Even the books I didn’t like, I still loved. I loved everything about books and everything about reading. I loved the smell of the paper, and the crackle of the binding. I loved the author for taking the time to tell me a story. And I marveled that some people had the ability to “make things up and write them down.” But the books that I loved most of all, the series that was perfection in my eyes, and inspired not only undying devotion, but countless re-reads, was an award winning series by a British author.

No, not that one.

Before Harry Potter, and after The Chronicles of Narnia, there was The Dark Is Rising series by the incomparable Susan Cooper. Full of Celtic and Arthurian Myth, set in the lush landscapes of Cornwall and Wales, this series vibrates with magic. Not the pointy-eared, wand-waving kind either. It's the kind of magic that inspires you to put on a sweater when you’re reading about it. The kind that makes you draw your toes up onto the chair you’re curled up in. The kind that makes you glance cautiously at the trees outside your window, wondering if perhaps, maybe, they are up to something. Raw and wild, The Dark Is Rising series inspired my imagination like no other book had. Naturally, I’ve been trying for years to get Emma interested.

Finally this past week -- success! It took a mild grounding and the removal of electronic privileges to do the trick. Except, not exactly, because such groundings have in fact happened before. Maybe it was that, in lieu of television, I read her the first chapter? Except that I’ve certainly done that before too. In fact on numerous occasions I’ve tried to get her interested in Harry Potter with a session of reading aloud. No dice. But I am ashamed to admit I had not, prior to the evening in question, read aloud from Susan Cooper. For that matter, I’d never read Susan Cooper's fine prose aloud at all.

I really should have.

Cuddled on the bed, teddy bear gripped firmly in hand, we dove into the first chapter of Over Sea, Under Stone. And it was a was a bit of revelation. Spoken aloud, the story took on a glow, the careful pacing immediately apparent to me, the dialogue bright with the colors of each characters unique personality. The three Drew children had my daughter hooked from the first page. And honestly folks, all they do in the first chapter is take a trip to a Grey House in Cornwall, meet up with their scruffy bearded Great Uncle Merry, and have a suspicious encounter with a foul-mouthed local boy. Oh, but there is so much more to come. And it’s glorious.

Tucking her in after the first chapter, I noticed a familiar look on my daughter’s face. One I’ve recognized on my own in the past. I was delighted. “Can I stay up a bit and read Mom? I really want to know what happens next!” “Grounding shmounding” I thought, and I let her stay up. She made it almost to chapter four on her own that night, and has been devoted to this book ever since. I should have realized sooner that Susan Cooper's spell was just the sort I needed to introduce my daughter to the magic of reading. The next morning she came bounding down the stairs and said “That book is awesome! I’m so glad you grounded me!”

Hmm, maybe I’ll ground her more often.

NOTE: Please, if you are inspired to read The Dark Is Rising series just ignore that movie they made. It may as well be about some other book entirely. Truly there was scarcely room to be offended by it, as it was almost unrecognizable as having any relationship to the books I cherish.