Courtney Wenstrom

ELD- 307
February 3, 2011

Literacy Autobiography

Throughout my life, I have always used books as an “escape” from the real

world. When one opens a book, I feel as if they can go into a different place, and

experience different things. Starting from a very young age, I have been told to read

a lot, and learned that reading can be very fun if done in the right form.

I cannot remember what my first actual book was that I read, because it

seems that as a young child, I always had a book in my hand. My mom would read to

me at night, and would help me with homework most of the time, which is probably

where I slowly picked up more and more vocabulary skills to become more

independent. She was the one who bought the starts of my collection of books,

which to this day I still have in a trunk. I would see her reading a romance novel,

and my dad exploring the larger historical items, which would stimulate my

eagerness to learn to read.

When I was around five years old, getting ready to go to kindergarten, I was

already learning letters, and could write my name when instructed to. Because the

skill of reading and comprehension should accompany this, I was drawn into books.

My parents always bought me easy-readers, and would allow me to read whenever I

wanted. At this age, “The Magic School Bus” series was a favorite, and I watched

every movie after reading each book. This type of adventure book brought me into a

different world, while actually teaching me hidden things about science. I continued
reading books because it made me feel so independent and grown-up. Once I was

getting too advanced for the small books, I moved onto chapter books, and young

adult books. I got very interested in series reading, and liked when I had to wait

until the next book was published in order to find out what was going to happen. As

I moved into first and second grade, my teachers saw me as an “accelerated reader,”

and I was pulled out of my regular classroom. I remember that in first grade, I was

put into the enrichment program with three other students, and we worked on

reading through the book “Harriet the Spy.” Although that may not seem like a very

challenging piece now, looking back on the content in that story and the length of

the book itself, it came to a seven year old as quite a task.

In my young adult years, I feel as if reading got away from me a little because

it was not seen as “cool.” Because technology was becoming more prevalent, and

the popularity of computers was on a rise, kids during those years were not picking

up books as often. I got away from literature, and focused more on the Internet and

interactive games. During this time of my life, reading to me was just done as an

assignment when the teacher told me to do so. The most reading I did was when

there was an award attached to it, such as the “Book It” series through Pizza Hut,

which ended in a fun night out with my family to eat. It was not until I started to see

my mom reading for her enjoyment when I became interested once again in picking

up a book that I would actually like, not just one that came as an assignment. I

began rummaging through my mom’s boxes of books she had read in the past, and

venturing into the more challenging types of literature.

 Now that I am an adult, I have become more dependent on good books to

relax me. When I have any free time at all, mostly during summer and winter

breaks, I try my best to pick out a few good books that I see, or books that have been

recommended to me by other people. I am very into the author Jodi Piccoult, and

have read many of her works. She can successfully take different aspects of stories,

like romance, mystery, and comedy, and combine them all into a great plotline.

Since the beach is so close to my house, it becomes very easy for me to begin reading

there, and ending up sitting in a chair for hours on end. I make sure that once I pick

a book up, I will finish it and be able to comprehend the essential meanings in it,

because that is what I grew up understanding was the “right” way of reading.

Because of my ambitious parents and teachers, I can honestly say that

reading is more of a recreational activity to me rather than a forced subject. At

twenty-one years old, I love just sitting for hours on end reading about a different

person’s life, and almost imagining what it would be like to be there. I believe that I

will continue to love reading, and I plan to bring upon the eagerness of this to my

children’s lives in future years.