Hallie's Lord of the Rings

As a little kid, I was a ferocious reader. I could read well and fast at an early age and enjoyed it. By the fourth grade, I was knee-deep in Tolkien. First The Hobbit, later the Lord of the Rings. That's fairly precocious content for a ten year old, even a geek. I'm not pretending I understood every nuance and plot twist as much as an adult reader. But I loved those books. The passion I read from Tolkien translated into other fantasy authors, like Terry Brooks and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and later into much of the content I read today, including comics, American literature, and political news magazines like Snoozeweek.

My oldest daughter, Hallie, just started the second grade this week. For the past two years, I've been reading the Peter and the Starcatchers series aloud to her. She adores Peter Pan. She's seen the Disney film countless times and when I noticed Barry and Pearson's book about the timeless character, I knew I had to buy it and read it to her. We're on the third book in the series already, Peter and the Secret of Rundoon. It's a great series, likely as entertaining to adults as it is to kids, its intended audience. And a welcome escape from the 100 pound gorilla of children's literature, the Harry Potter series.

Unbeknownst to me, while I've been reading Rundoon to Hallie every other night or so, she went back to the first book. Reading it herself, surreptitiously. I had no idea until Wifezilla clued me in. I asked Hallie if she understood what she was reading and she said, "Yeah, most of it," in the kind of casual tone that leads me to believe she's processing most if not all of it full blast. Tonight, I snuck up just outside her room to eavesdrop. It's not nice to spy on people, but screw that! She's my kid and all I do I do in the name of Daddys across the country. Anyway, I wanted to get a sense of her reading. She's so little, she still reads to herself aloud. Her narration is excellent, if not a bit too fast. I can tell she's processing the words faster than her mouth can pronounce them, one of the reasons why reading teachers have kids shift to silent reading eventually. She also inflects her voice according to the dialogue, unlike most of her peers, who read with the kind of dull monotone that would shame that teacher who says Bueller over and over again.

All this is well and good, but I'm mostly bursting with pride right now. Wifezilla and I have read to our girls since in utero. Yes, I actually read to Wifezilla's belly. Less with Claire, but belly-reading took place nonetheless. The girls' rooms are absolutely stuffed with books. Of all kinds too. And it seems to have paid off. All on her own, Hallie has latched on to a series of books that she loves. She's reading them on her own now, with absolutely no compulsion or force. I know she'll move on to other books from here. It's just the beginning for her and I'm excited for the road she's about to travel. And I'm relieved. Reading is the foundation for all learning. If she can master it, she can do anything. And if she can do anything, she can accomplish everything.

And everything is exactly what I want for her.