Saturday, July 04, 2015

Reading About Read-Alouds

I'm reviewing notes and polishing up a talk about read-alouds that I'll be giving next weekend at the "Filled With Joy" conference in Omaha. But I just had to stop what I'm doing and share this old post, entitled "Why I Love Our Read-Alouds, Part 937." Ramona was not quite six years old:

~~~~~

Ramona asked me if I would read Anne of Green Gables to her. We started a couple of days ago, and when we reached the passage in which Anne describes herself as being in the "depths of despair" Ramona asked me what the "depths of despair" were.

"Well," I said, "'despair' means being terribly, terribly sad, so the 'depths of despair' would be the saddest a person could possibly be. Have you ever been in the depths of despair?"

"I," replied Ramona, "am in the depths of despair whenever you have to go out and I can't be with you. That's how much I love you."

She gazed up at me in a very Anne Shirley way.

And I?

I felt as if I'd just seen the White Way of Delight, the Lake of Shining Waters and had been told by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert that they were going to keep me.

My latest Anne-with-an-e fan (Ramona, not the cat.)

5 comments:

tanita✿davis said...

Awwww. My fave classic book, and the sweetest moment!

Tamara said...

That is precious. Every time I read a post about "little Ramona" I wish I had known you all then!!

Karen Edmisten said...

One of my all-time favorites, too, Tanita!

Tamara, I wish we'd known each other a longer time, too, but at least we know each other now. :)

Margaret in Minnesota said...

Read this post aloud to my Felicity. So sweet and so Ramona. :)

Karen Edmisten said...

Thanks, Mags. It's almost hard to remember when Ramona was only 6! And when I thought about it, I couldn't believe I started reading her Anne that young, but then my older girls reminded me that I started it once with her, then we put it down and I waited until she was older to read it all the way through.