This book came to my attention this week because a modern reprint is now being sold at our local Farm and Fleet store, so I checked out this copy from our library. It's curious to me that I have such a vivid memory of a book first encountered over 70 years ago. I was born in 1946, Golden Books published this in 1949, and it must have come to our household shortly thereafter.
My mother's teaching didn't involve any special techniques. She opened the book for both of us to see and read the words while I looked at the pages (and the words) with her. Over and over again.
This is not a word-learning book ("B is for ball"). It's actually a "counting book" (two colts, three calves, four turkeys, five geese...), and the words on the pages are not always simple (cattails, frisky, suppertime, waddled). But mom's repetitive technique was certainly effective, because by the time I started first grade, I was able to read the local newspaper.
I'll add this post to my recommended books category. And I invite every reader to mention in the comments the first book they ever remember reading.
My first book -- that I remember, and that I could read by myself -- was Hop on Pop, though Go Dog Go was a close second.
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1961, my first book was What Spot? by Crosby Bonsall. I believe I got it at the school library while in 1st grade, and remember being praised for having read such a big book.
ReplyDeleteDelagar, same as me! Although I remember The Fuzzy Duckling fondly.
ReplyDeleteBorn in ’44, my first book was my sisters songbook.
ReplyDeleteShe would have killed me If she knew I touched it while she was in school.
Until 2 years ago I’d have bet a lot that the lyrics were...
I come from Montana, I wear a bandanna
My spurs are of silver, my pony is gray
When out on the ranges my luck never changes
With foot in the stirrup, I’ll gallop away
However the internet says its
My home’s in Montana, I wear a bandanna,
My spurs are of silver, my pony is gray.
Whatever the weather, we travel together,
With foot in the stirrup, I’ll gallop all day.
xoxoxoBruce
Born in 1971, I remember feeling delight when my mother read Miss Suzy (1964, I've just learned), about a squirrel forced from her home by a mean gang of red squirrels. I also spent many hours paging through Free to Be... You and Me (1972). I imagine there were other books, but I think those memories were largely replaced by my subsequent obsession with Star Wars.
ReplyDeleteGoodness, I can't remember the first book I could read, though this is one I certainly read. And now that I've been reminded, I can find it for youngest granddaughter!
ReplyDeleteThis one looks mighty familiar. The book I remember the most as a first book was "Duck On A Truck". I was four when it was published, so there were likely other books I just don't quite recall.
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of this book https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1544373189199088.1073741830.1542722169364190&type=3
ReplyDeleteDick and Jane! It was the book used to teach us to read in 1st grade. The content wasn't scintillating, but it did the job.
ReplyDeleteBorn in 1943, I remember The Pokey Little Puppy (also a Golden Books) and The Little Engine that Could.
ReplyDeleteMy first book: Belling The Cat
ReplyDeleteIt's about putting a bell on a cat to warn the birds so they don't get caught.
Probably got it around 1967, and still have it.
A classic tale to begin one's life of book-reading.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belling_the_Cat
The first book I crayoned in was some book with Chip and Dale. English was a non-language at home, so my mother probably "read" it to me by pointing to drawings and told me some story about the characters?
ReplyDeleteBorn in 1954: The Cat in the Hat. I remember being so pleased to realize I was reading it myself, after my sister had read it to me often.
ReplyDeleteMy mother taught me to read the same way yours taught you. It's hard to imagine any other way that could work as well as that. I don't remember which book was first for me, but it would likely be Aesop's Fables, or Horton Hears a Who, or The Cat in the Hat, or a book that began, "Abie had a tummy ache. Too much ice cream, too much cake. Abie had a pain inside. He stayed home from school and cried." Or a joke book that had the joke, "Teacher: Do we get fur from a skunk? Pupil: Yes, just as fur as we can." That one was the first time I can remember where something written annoyed me and I wondered why. I understood the joke; I just didn't like that it existed, and that was puzzling.
ReplyDeleteThe Three Smart Squirrels and Squee
ReplyDeleteFox In Socks is the first book I remember reading, and I read it a LOT. I loved the rhyming.
ReplyDeleteNot a first book but a reading story...I was in second grade, and browsing in the school library. The librarian came over and exclaimed, those are the fourth grade books! You should be over in that other section. I stood my ground and pointed at books in the fourth grade section and said, but I've already read that one and that one and that one. The librarian finally left me alone!
One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish from Dr Seuss. My mom read it to us (I'm a twin) every day while pointing at the words so that when she began asking us the next word (which we had memorized by that time) we could associate it with the print. The first book I remember being read to me is 1953's, "Golden Bunny Book"
ReplyDeleteMy recollection today is not of the first book _I read_. Instead, the much stronger memory is of watching my daughter with Angelina Ballerina by Katherine Holabird, as she read it to me for the first time. She loved the story after my many readings of it to her and clearly hung on my every word, for she had memorized the entire story, down to the inflections i used on certain parts. To watch her deliver the entire story correctly page by page, I knew right away I had helped create a young reader, a book lover. From there, she quickly learned to recognize the written symbols of English language and work out new words & stories in books i had not read into her memory. Creating a reader, a book lover. One of my greatest accomplishments as a parent. She now teaches elementary school in the Virginia public system.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. And congratulations.
Delete“Ten Apples Up On Top” by Theo LeSieg, which was Dr. Seuss spelling his real name backwards as a pseudonym. Best part is the wordless image of an apple-filled crash that my mom had me “read.” Just gave the book to a 3-year-old friend for her b-day.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I don't know if Hop on Pop or Go Dog Go was my first book-I read them so often to my girls 30+years ago that they're burned in my brain. But The Color Kittens was an early one for me. My mom would read me The Wind in the Willows at bedtime.
ReplyDelete