Personal Narrative: Dolphins At Daybreak And Magic Tree Home

It was time for bed which meant it was story time. I would lie down in my huge bed, all cuddled up in my fuzzy blanket. I patiently waited for my mom to be done with washing the dishes. We started by choosing a book from the many books on the shelf. Our shelf was filled vivid multicolored books. All stacked from the tiniest to the She began to read with her Mexican accent, reading those English words carefully to not mess up.The comfortable feeling in her voice so soft and silvery. I would begin to yawn and I felt the sleepiness hit me, which was normal. I would rub my eyes and try to be awake. I felt my eyes slowly closing. Before I knew it, I was knocked out.

Now let's flash back to the preschool times. The place where you mostly played games and fooled

around rather than actually learning. But I mean eventually we learned something, right? It commenced when we learned the alphabet and the sounds of the letters. I remember the first time I entered my preschool classroom the pastel colors painted on the wall with glossy pictures. The area felt very welcoming with everything being the height I was. There was an area that stood out to me as a kid the toy area, of course.The carpet was vibrant with each little square having its own letter. Mr. Jeff, my preschool teacher, gave me a disc that had a video about the alphabet, just to get the sense of the letters. In school, I had to write the letters and learn the sound that each letter made. I progressed to writing short words like cat, had, run, etc. It was easy to learn words considering many of them rhymed like: cat, hat, mat, and other examples of that. I used strategies involving rhymes, which helped me to read. One of those strategies were reading the works of Dr. Seuss, since several of his books have some sort of rhyming.
The hardest part as a kid who was learning to read, was coming home and reading with my mom. As a Mexican and American it was a mass of work for a kid to learn two different languages at once. Meaning, I’d go to school speaking English then I’d go home and speak Spanish. It was a struggle. Name a few struggles and be specific with them. Learning to read in English was hard too. My teachers would tell me to read to a parent for homework, so I’d go home and read to my mom. Reading with my mom was difficult for me because she never really understood English, so she didn’t know what I was saying. I wasn’t sure if I was reading correctly because I never had anyone to actually correct me and my mistakes. Even though my mom wasn’t good with English, she was very supportive in helping me learn to read.
Some moments in kindergarten helped me improve to read and my interest in reading. When I was in kindergarten, we had something called kinder buddies. Basically, these big scary kids (5th graders) would come to the class apparently to read to us. At the time I thought it was helpful because these 5th graders were so smart. I was amazed at how fast my kinder buddy could read, whereas I would take ten minutes to read a five-page book with only three words per page. Also, there was a time when the principal read to us in Camp Skeeter basically a tent inside a classroom plus s’mores. When the principal was reading to us I thought he was like the President.
My interest in reading grew when I met older kids who could read well and inspired me to get better.

Before I knew it, I too was reading chapter books. I remember when I was in second grade I read my first chapter book, Magic Tree House series. Those were the good days. My favorite one was Dolphins at Daybreak. I’ve always wanted to swim with intelligent dolphins, in the clear sparkling ocean. Reading a chapter book was a different experience from reading picture books. With chapter books, I couldn’t rely on the pictures to help me understand the story. I had to create my own images. I like to see it as if I directed a movie. The author is the screenwriter and us having to work together to create this movie in my head. The characters in my head would be actors and actresses I’ve seen before in movies or shows and the author would be telling me how the story goes. For example, whenever I read The Hunger Games series I imagine Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. Also when I read The Maze Runner series I imagine Dylan O’brien as Thomas when he is in the dark metal box. Imagine him trying to find a way to escape since he was confused. There were times when I read it would transport me to a different

place.
As I got older, I saw something more to books than an epic adventure. There was a sophistication and some sort of lesson in the book. I learned that books can teach life lessons. For instance, The Giving Tree, I always thought the meaning to the book was that no matter what somebody will always be there, through thick or thin even if you feel lonely. There are books that are more realistic showing, that life doesn’t have happily ever after. Such as The Fault in our Stars the majority of the story is about love. But, the quote “The world is not a wish-granting factory” is saying that everyone believes in happy endings it's just not how life is. I can’t wait to read another book that will teach more about life.