Posted on July 24, 2019 at 2:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

We stumbled upon a beautiful quote recently from actress Helen Hayes:

“From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings.”

It inspired us to ask our Facebook fans about the adults who introduced them to books, thus enabling them to discover their wings.

If you enjoy this sample of the responses, be sure to follow our Facebook page and check back in for our next reader question — your comment could appear in the next installment of this series!

Book-nook envy

Janet K.: My love of reading came from my dad, his mother and father, his father's father (who I've been told had floor to ceiling bookcases all around his front “parlor”), and all my aunts and my uncle.

Penny N.: Grandfather was a NYC high school English teacher. He had a huge library in the basement and took me down there to see them all when I was five.

I still have most of them, and my most prized possession is a 1937 Webster's Unabridged Dictionary with its own stand (pictured below).

Off to the library!

Debby B.: My mother started taking us to the library when we were still doing picture books. Every two weeks.

During the summer, when the afternoons were intensely hot, we had a choice. We could read or take a nap. My brother napped. I read. I still read every day.

Mary-Ellen F.: Every Saturday my mom walked my sister and me to the library. We spent the morning, checked out piles of books for the week, and spent the week reading and talking about them.

Theresa D.: My grandmother was a reader, and I stayed with her on school vacations and summers. I read all her Grace Livingston Hill, Emily Loring, and Bobbsey Twins books, and we would walk to the bookmobile to get more books to read.

Setting a good example

Kay L.: My granny read books over and over to me, supplied books for me (and now I know at a sacrifice to herself), and allowed me to read late, early, and any time. Sixty years later, I treasure books she bought for me!

Moira S.: I was read to prenatally and it stuck. My grandmother sent me books before I was born.

My mother was an example of reading (every night after dinner) and both parents introduced me to the wonders of the library (my earliest memory!). Still a bookaholic and loving it.

Cynthia R.: My grandmother read to me a lot in the afternoons when it was too hot to do anything else. I particularly remember Alice in Wonderland and Peter Rabbit.

My mom always had a novel from the library. I asked her one time how she decided on a book, thinking she would say something about a favorite author. She said she always picked the fattest one on the shelf!

Lilian C.: My dad came home every day with a book and a small bar of chocolate, thus my two loves. Then teachers and librarians completed the cycle. So now I try to do the same with my students.

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