The Reading Promise:

Father-Daughter Reading Streak Lasts Nearly 9 Years

1. Read the text about The Reading Promise and find headlines for the paragraphs!
1
When Alice Ozma was in the fourth grade, her family was going through a rough patch. Her parents had just split up, and her older sister had recently left for college. Ozma was suddenly spending a lot more time alone with her dad, Jim Brozina, an elementary school librarian. together e"ery single night for #$$ days. o Ozma and her father made a pledge! to read

2
But after #$$ days, they just %ept going. &heir strea% ultimately lasted ',(#) days * spanning from Ozma+s fourth,grade year to her first day of college. &heir commitment to reading and to each other are the subject of Ozma+s debut boo%, The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared. Brozina and Ozma join -./+s 0/eading trea%0 ali"e. cott imon to tal% about what %ept their

3
&he nightly reads 1uic%ly became habit, Ozma e2plains. 03 thin% that once you start something li%e that, it+s "ery difficult to stop4 it seems "ery weird after #$$ nights of reading in a row to say, +5et+s not read tonight.+ 0&he strea% was a source of stability for the pair through difficult times. 03 did e"erything 3 could to ma%e things be as comfortable as possible,0 Brozina says. 0We went through a "ery rough patch for a few years ... it was almost scary, the situation we were in financially.0

4
/eading together was one thing they %new they could depend on. As Ozma got older, it got harder to %eep it up, but the pair persisted * e"en on the night of Ozma+s prom. 0Before 3 went out, 3 had my hair in my up,do and my fancy dress on,0 Ozma recalls. 0And 3 just sort of climbed into the bed ne2t to him and he read to me. &hat+s what had to happen.0

5
6or Brozina, the hardest part wasn+t maintaining the strea% * it was ending it. Ozma was heading off to college at /utgers, and it was time to bring the nearly nine,year tradition to a close. On the last night, Ozma chose to read from the same boo% they+d read for their first father,daughter reading! The Wizard of Oz. 0&hat was the single hardest thing to do,0 Brozina recalls, 0to read, cho%ed up, tears in eyes * both of us. &hat was the most difficult, to stop it.0 His daughter is all grown up and he has retired from his job as a librarian, but Brozina has still found ways to read aloud. He+s accumulated a large picture boo% collection. 03 ta%e them to senior citizens homes and to three schools,0 he says.

6
&oday, Brozina and Ozma are encouraging a new generation of families to ma%e their own reading promises. 03 don+t thin% fathers and daughters are spending time together e"ery night,0 Ozma says. 0&his is a generation of "ery, "ery busy %ids.0 But all it ta%es is one night ... followed by another night ... and another ... and another. And if your family is anything li%e Alice Ozma+s, the hardest part of your reading strea% will be bringing it to an end.

2. Vocabulary
rough patch pledge strea% commitment habit persist maintain head off accumulate encourage

!ind the definition for the "ords and phrases from the text!
7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 the act of binding yourself 7intellectually or emotionally8 to a course of action to refuse to stop to ha"e a hard time and feel uncomfortable with a situation to get or gather things together an unbro%en series of e"ents a binding commitment to do or don9t do something to %eep something in a certain state to contribute to the progress or growth, to promote something an automatic pattern of beha"ior to lea"e for something li%e school, wor%, holiday

#xcerpt $The Reading Promise$

by Alice Ozma :ay # 3t started on a train. 3 am sure of it. &he ',(#),night reading marathon that my father and 3 call &he trea% started on a train to Boston, when 3 was in third grade. We were reading 5. 6ran% Baum+s The Tin Woodman of Oz, the twelfth boo% in the belo"ed Oz series, a few hours into our trip. &he woman across the aisle turned to us and as%ed why my father was reading to me on a train. We simply told her that this was what we always did * he had been reading to me e"ery night for as long as 3 could remember, e"er since we read Pinocchio when 3 was four. Being on "acation didn+t ma%e much of a difference. Why not read; Why not always read; But her surprise made us thin%. 3f we were going to read on "acation anyway, how hard could it be to ma%e reading e"ery night an official goal; 3 suggested to my father that we aim for one hundred consecuti"e nights of reading, and he agreed to the challenge. &his is how 3 remember it. 3f you as% my father, though, as many people recently ha"e, he+ll paint an entirely different picture. 05o"ie,0 he tells me, as 3 patiently endure his "ersion of the story, 0you+re crac%ed in the head. :o you want to %now what really happened or are you just going to write down whate"er thing comes to mind;0 5o"ie, as 3+m sure you can guess, is not my real name. Alice is, but only sort of. <y full name is =risten Alice Ozma Brozina, but 3 don+t care for =risten. Alice and Ozma are names my father chose from literature, names 3 would later choose for myself. 3t+s a decision that too% a long time, but one 3+m "ery happy 3 made. &hose names always felt li%e my real names to me, as 3+ll e2plain later. Also, 5o"ie is not the affectionate pet name you might thin% it is. As are all things in my father+s "ocabulary, it is a reference to something * this time it+s <r. Howell+s nic%name for <rs. Howell on Gilligan s !sland. <y father ne"er calls me by my name4 5o"ie is his most commonly chosen alternati"e. But when 3 drop something, or forget something, or do any of the silly things we all manage to do on a regular basis, 05o"ie0 is often followed by phrases such as 0you nitwit>0 0 o tell me then,0 3 say, standing in his doorway as he gets ready to run errands. 0Well, when did <om lea"e;0 he as%s. 03 was ten.0 0All right, so #??@ it started. &he trea% was a year old when she left.0 0And what were we reading;0 0Well,0 he says thoughtfully, 0it had to be an Oz boo%. &hat+s what we were into around that time. 3 wanted to try other things, but you were set in your ways.0 o far, we agree. But 3 %now this won+t last long. 0We were on the bed, we+d just finished reading,0 he says, 0and 3 was fearing the Aurse of <r. Henshaw.0 0What is that curse;0 0"ear Mr. #ensha$ was the boo% 3 was reading to =athy when she as%ed me to stop reading to her,0 he says in an almost whisper. 3t is clear that this memory, though nearly two decades old, still troubles him. <y sister was in fourth grade when she said she no longer wanted my father to read to her. 3t seemed childish to her, especially since she was already reading no"els on her own. But it wasn+t so easy for my father. He was an elementary school librarian, and reading to children was what he li%ed to do best. And maybe ne2t to being a father, it+s also what he does best. His soothing "oice and rehearsed facial e2pressions ha"e won o"er thousands of children throughout his career. &hey won me o"er, too, but 3 was already on his side. 06or some time, 3+d been planning to suggest to you that we do a strea%, because then at least you+d be a little older when we stopped reading together. 3 brought it up, and honest to .ete, 3 thought you were going to say we should read a hundred nights in a row>0 He laughs as he recalls this. 3 don+t laugh because 3 thin% 3 did suggest a hundred nights in a row. 3nitially. 0-o,0 he continues, 0/ight away you said, +5et+s do one thousand>+ And 3 had to pretend to be enthusiastic, of course, but 3 wasn+t too optimistic. One thousand nights is a long time.0 3 ha"e to stop him there. -one of this sounds right to me. 6irst 3 remind him that our goal had been one hundred nights. When we reached that goal, howe"er, and celebrated with a panca%e brea%fast at the local greasy spoon, we decided to set a new goal. We s%ipped the discussions of lower options, from two hundred to fi"e hundred, and ultimately decided to try for one thousand nights. 3 tell him this, but he just sha%es his head. When 3 try to e2plain that &he trea% actually began on the train, he cuts me off. 0Ah, the Aurious 3ncident of the &rain in the -ighttime>0 he says, adapting the title of one of our fa"orite herloc% Holmes stories. 03 remember that part clearly,0 he continues, 0because 3 ne"er miss an opportunity to brag about what a good father 3 am. We were on the train to Boston, going up to see the sights for a wee%end, and the woman ne2t to us said how sweet it was that 3 was reading to you. 3 told her right away that we were on a strea%, forty nights in> 3 was pleased with myself, absurdly pleased with myself, pleased as a peacoc% to ha"e made it forty nights.0 %&cer'ted from the (ook &he /eading .romise (y )lice Ozma *o'yright +,--. )lice Ozma P/(lished (y Grand *entral P/(lishing. )ll Rights Reser0ed