My Fifth-Grade teacher Mr. Danning didn’t make me a reader. He made me a smarter, better reader.
Even as a baby, I loved books. I would gum them and color on them. They were lots of phone. By the time, I was in grade school I loved to read books. I started with Francis and Dr. Seuss.
I saw the movies “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn”. My parents gave me copies of both books. I loved them and then I lived them. I walked barefoot outside until I had deep calloused on my feet. I dressed in bib overalls and a straw hat. I begged my father to buy me a mock corncob bubbles and I blew bubbles with it.
Then Nancy Drew entered my life and I could read enough of her. Soon I started to read other series and authors such as The Children of Green Knowe and Little Women. I would read in bed late in the night under the cover with a flashlight, devouring book after book.
Then came fifth grade. We switched rooms for reading. I had Mr. Danning for reading. He challenged us to read in our spare time. For each book report we wrote on a “free reading” book, we got a link in a chain that started in one corner of the room and it moved across the walls. It was so easy for me to add link after link. Then Mr. Danning challenged me. He told me to choose books that were not in my series. He encouraged me to read authors I had never read before.
The first book I chose was Anne of Green Gables. I fell in love at first book. In a matter of weeks, I had read the entire series. I wanted to be Anne. I admired her ability to make magic out of ordinary life, to own up to mistakes and apologize, to sacrifice for her family. I thought she was so brave to recite poetry in public places. She also didn’t have much and she was happy with what she had. I wanted to read the books again and again. However, that would not have added any links in my chain.
I scanned the library shelves and I checked out Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables. The book took me twice as long to read as any other book I had read up to that point. I would say I enjoyed the story. It is more appropriate to say I appreciated the story. I enjoyed the characters. I didn’t love them. I will admit I didn’t see much application to my life.
At the end of the semester with my chain the longest of any one in the classroom by a long measure, Mr. Danning asked me what book meant the most to me. I quickly said ‘Anne of Green Gables’. He asked was I sure and didn’t I mean The House of Seven Gables. I said no. I liked The House of Seven Gables, but I loved Anne of Green Gables. Mr. Danning said when I was older, I would change my mind.
I am older now. Today Anne of Green Gables is tied with Huckleberry Finn not just my favorite books but as the books that fundamentally shaped who I am. My ideas of right and wrong, my moral code, my definition of quality of life and family duty are all tied with the lessons I learned from those two books. My partner has hazel eyes and brown hair. (Although he is not a doctor. Instead I am the one in the medical field while writing in spare time.)
Mr. Danning was not wrong. The House of Seven Gables did have a profound impact on me. I had read a classic and enjoyed it. I never looked back after that. I was never afraid of reading any book. I also made a point of seeking out books and authors from different countries, different backgrounds, different historical periods. I started to read and appreciate nonfiction, fantasy and science fiction. I made a point of not reading two many books of the same genre at one time. I try to make three my limit even now. Three mysteries followed by a biography followed my science fiction followed by a classic followed by a book written by an Asia or Australian author. I discovered The Man from Snowy River and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I discovered Marilyn French, J.D. Salinger, Stephen King, Kurt Vonnegut, George Eliot and George Sand. So many authors so many authors so many marvelous books. I was introduced to a broader, wider world with so many different points of view. So many new and novel situations and so many roads to take.
I was stuck in a house and The House of Seven Gables was a door that I walked through to enter a new world. I would be a much poorer, ignorant person without it. Even though I credit Anne and Huck with so much of who I am, Nathanial Hawthorne (and Mr. Danning) deserve a sizable amount of credit too.
Life is so much richer when you explore with your mind as well as your feet.
Enjoy
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