Baby's First Book

I don't exactly remember my very first time reading a children's book but, I can remember my book adventures in pre-school.

One memory I have is one of the times I was the coolest, funniest kid in the class. It was "carpet reading time". During "carpet reading time", my teacher had us all sit on the carpet while she read a book to the class. Sometimes, my teacher was busy helping other students so she had us listen to books on tape. The class favorite book (one that still brings a smile to my face) was Miss Nelson is Missing!. While the tape was playing during one of our carpet reading sessions, I was assigned the task of bookshelf clean up. Eventually, I came across the hard copy of Miss Nelson is Missing!. Around the same time of the discovery of the book copy, the recording was approaching the part of the book that everyone laughed at. I dragged my feet to clean the bookshelf as the class favorite part came closer and closer in the recording. I slyly opened the book and flipped to catch up with the recording. As if on cue, the recording got to the favorite part just as I found the corresponding page. I quickly flashed the picture to the class and they all laughed as if they had never seen it before. The unexpectedness of it caused the class to roar in laughter and I felt my 4 year old self climb the school's social ladder. However, that was not the only time a book helped me to get ahead...

Today, I am a year behind my class in age and I owe it all to children's literature. In pre-school, my teacher had small weekly readings. We read in class every hour, sometimes to ourselves and sometimes with the rest of the class. One book in particular that I remember was a small book made completely out of paper and bounded only by staples. I don't remember completely what the story line was, only that it involved a mouse and cheese. We must have read that book several times over on a weekly basis. One fateful day, my teacher sat us down and passed the mouse book around for us to follow her reading. Surprisingly, she made a mistake and said the word "and" instead of "the" in the text. Out loud, I corrected her. The entire class turned and looked at me. My teacher stopped mid-sentence and asked me to repeat what I said. Fearfully I repeated, "You said 'and'. The word is 'the'." Baffled, she continued to read the book. As soon as she was finished, she sent me to the principal's office. What happened afterwards, I can't exactly remember. My mother informs me, however, that in the principal's office the principal had me read several books to her. Soon after, the school figured out that I could read on a 3rd grade level in pre-school. Consequently, I skipped kindergarten and I have been reading ever since.