Alice is 9-years old and precocious. She and her father (a school librarian) decide to read out loud for at least 10 minutes a day for 1000 days. While The Streak adds days, Alice’s mother moves out. Her older sister becomes a foreign exchange student. And Alice gets her first “C” in English in her life. This touching memoir of a young girl coping with a broken family, a well-meaning but sometimes clueless single father, and her own love of books captures the sense of growing up in an unsettled home environment. But the stability in Alice’s life is that nightly reading time with her father. I was moved by The Reading Promise and you will be too. GRADE: A
This sort of books always interests me. What people read, what means a lot to them.
Alice and her father read some great books, Patti: the entire Oz series and Encyclopedia Brown books and Shakespeare. Alice includes three pages of book titles from The Streak.
Dunno, George. It sounds a little depressing.
On a happier note, congrats to your Bills. Who’d have thunk it?
Thanks, Drongo! Bills fans are still in shock and disbelief over that 41-7 beatdown of the Chiefs. But, it’s only one game. We’ll see what the Bills do against the Oakland Raiders next week. We’ll see what your Broncos will do against the Raiders tonight.
Right – go Bills!
I’m reserving this one at the library, George. Like you and Patti I’m a sucker for books about books and reading.
You’ll like THE READING PROMISE, Jeff. And you might want to read the section about what happens to Alice’s father when his Principal changes the school library program to Jackie. She’ll instantly relate to what’s happening.
I saw something about this on TV at some point. Is/was there talk of making a film?
Yes, Rick, Alice and her father are on book tour. There’s enough drama in THE READING PROMISE to make a pretty good film.
Add me to the ‘sucker for books about books’ list. I actually picked this up from the library recently after being on the waiting list forever. The timing of course couldn’t be worse as I am committed to so much other reading at the moment. It sounds so good though. I’m thinking I originally heard about it on NPR.
I’m sure Alice and her father were on NPR, too, Carl. THE READING PROMISE is actually a quick read. I can’t get over all the stuff you’re reading! Amazing!
There has always been “Daddy-Daughter Reading Time” in our house, where my husband read to our daughters before bedtime. Through the years he’s read them all the Greek & Roman myths, stories from Shakespeare, the entire Harry Potter series, a lot of Golden Age mysteries (including many of Agatha Christie’s), and a sprinkling of classic children’s books (Anne of Green Gables, Little House, A Wrinkle in Time, etc.). Even though our oldest is now in college and the youngest (twins) are teenagers, every once in a while, they still ask for a bedtime story.
Same in our home, Deb! My wife is an excellent oral reader and she always read to Patrick and Katie. I read to both kids, too. But my choices were Sandra Boynton books and Dr. Seuss.