On Learning to Read, With an Excerpt from Ali Smith's Introduction to The Book Lover

Ali Smith on her earliest reading experiences, from the introduction to The Book Lover, an anthology of some of her favourite pieces by other writers:

   I learned to read early: I was three years old. According to my father, I learned by pairing the heard names of programmes to the words in the TV listings in the paper, and I can actually remember working out the link between the spoken and written words "fine" and "woman" on the Beatles double-A sided 45, "She's a Woman / I Feel Fine". By the age of eight I'd read everything in the house; it felt fine, to read.
   I was precocious, because born at the end of a family of five children, with my closest brother seven years older than me. This meant the cupboard above the bed in the bedroom, which I shared with my two much older sisters, was full of the books they and my brothers were reading, mainly secondary school set texts, I suppose now, though there were rogue copies of unexpected things, and there was certainly a lot of Georgette Heyer up there (belonging to my sister Anne, who had the ability to remove herself so deeply into a book that you could be shouting her name right next to her ear and she'd not hear you).
   I wasn't much for historical romance (though I quite liked the horses in it). I ignored the piles of Heyer and read all the other books in the cupboard. It wasn't till I was in my twenties and reading for a university degree that I realized I'd read my way through a lot of Joyce, Orwell and Swift before the age of ten.

I always have trouble believing people when they announce they've read a lot of someone like Joyce before the age of ten. But that's probably because I personally was a solid six or seven before I really learned to read, and I needed a little extra attention from the first grade teacher in order to catch up to the top students in the class. Back then they used to divide classes into two or three groups. They were often assigned random names, those groups, perhaps after flowers or animals, but it was a matter of minutes before every child in the class could figure out that the "Sunflowers" --for example -- were the "Smart Ones", the "Daisies" were "Middling" and the "Dandelions" were the "Dummies." I'd attended a different school for kindergarten, where the focus had clearly been more on play than academics, and after the first couple of days of grade one the teacher bunched me in with the equivalent of the Daisies. I promptly went home and complained to my mother, who asked the teacher to help me catch up to the Sunflowers. The school was in rural Nova Scotia, the teacher was nearing retirement, and we actually used those old Dick and Jane readers. I remember the first real book I ever truly read by myself was an ancient musty copy of one of the Bobbsey Twins Series. How about you?

Comments

[-R-]

I learned to read early; I was 3 or 4. My mom said I taught myself to read because I was mad she wouldn't read the Sunday funnies to me.

I loved the Bobbsey Twins when I was in 1st grade. I used to go to the used bookstore and stock up on Bobbsey Twins and Trixie Belden.

[Kerry]

My mom taught me to read when I was four with these books I couldn't stand by an author called Margaret Hillert. They were much simplified fairy tales, and cutting down the vocab certainly limited the stories. They were so dull! A few years later, I liked The Bobbsey Twins too, though I still wonder how Flossie Bobbsey was damaged by her childhood nickname "the Fat Little Fairy".

[Cindy]

Oh my...in fact I was in that class..do you remember the threat of the strap?? ..I read the Bobbsey twins as well, but the first books I ever bought with my own money, were Little House on the Prairie...and my daughter read them in grade one as well!

[Steph]

Hey Cindy! How fun is this? You were in the top group, I remember. And so were Deirdre and Roger. Who else? And do you remember exactly what the groups were called? There was a little boy with red hair and freckles who also got a little extra help and then bumped up to the top group, too. I think he moved away after that year because I don't remember his name. And I *do* remember the threat of the strap -- but no one ever got strapped, did they? I remember Mrs. Tanner used to make naughty children go stand in the "cloak closet." Or maybe it was the "cloak cupboard." Sounds Victorian. I loved that building.

Kerry, I didn't remember Flossie's nickname until now! Ha. And "Flossie" is bad enough.

R -- I loved Trixie Belden, too. And her rich friend with the honey-coloured hair and eyes who was called, obviously, "Honey."

[Perfectly Disgraceful]

I remember being technically able to read in kindergarten and first grade, but not really getting it until second grade. I think I must have been pretty slow until then. I don't remember exactly when I became a voracious reader, or what I read early on, other than weird stapled together cat/mat/bat books in kindergarten. At some point I did read every Bobbsey Twins and Trixie Belden book I could get my hands on. I also remember reading old Reader's Digests at a friend's house. They only had one small bookshelf of very random books and I read every one, including Art Linkletter's Kids Say the Darndest Things. I was fascinated with that book.

[Cindy]

haha...I dont remember what the groups were called, but, I have to admit, that I too, at the age of 6, realized that the groups were divided by "smart" levels...oh my...red hair and freckles boy? I dont remember, but I think I remember Chris Uhlman being in that group..I remember the "cloak closet"..lol..and only the threat of the strap...but I can picture Mrs Tanner in my mind..so she was obviously a memorable teacher...for one reason or another...other than that, I dont recall the divisions being so apparant until we had the 4/5 split later on...and I remember being proud, yet again, to be in the 5 side of the split...haha...my competitive nature lives on....;)

Trixie Beldon and Bobbsey twins...Im pretty sure we switched back and forth...I loved to read ....and still do...;)