[HPFGU-OTChatter] Aliteracy

[Starling]

Hmmm.
As a bibliophile my entire life (I grew up across the street from the public library.  the children's librarian still refers to herself as my second mother, i moved in every summer <g>), I've been very interested by the topic.

IMHO, it comes down to the parents.  I'll cite catherine's example, how she got her step-gdaughter reading instead of listening to the CDs.  (and props for that!)  My mom let us watch movies, sure, but she read to us every night before we went to sleep.  dad got in on the game once we got old enough for the laura ingalls wilder books (he'd had them read to him in school).  this is one of my favorite childhood warm fuzzies -- curled up in bed with mom and dad trying to squish themselves in the corners, all of us reading some cheesy golden book out loud together.  
When my sibs and i got older, we'd get sent across the street and told we weren't allowed back in the house til we'd picked out a book to read.  this started out happening weekly and by the time i was seven or so i was devouring a book a day.  (chapter books, mind you, not just picture books...i've turned into an incredibly fast reader.)
my entire family reads.  My brother, who has ADD and thanks to athsma medications is usually bouncing off the walls, actually got thru jon krakauer's "into thin air" in less than a month -- he nearly gave up several times, and every time he tried, one of my parents was standing there saying "but you really wanted to read this" -- and he'd turn right back around and dive in.  you should have seen his face when he finished -- you'd have thought he'd climed everest himself <g>

make a long story short (too late? <g>) it's all about the influences that are there.  my parents are the reason i read the way i do.  i bet most of us were introduced to reading in much the same way.  the only way to combat "aliteracy" is to promote literacy, of any sort, using whatever tools are available.  to be honest, i'm sure there will be plenty of kids who would be content to just see the movie.  but then they're gonna want to know what happens next, so if they haven't read books 2-3-4 yet there's a good chance they'll pick it up, especially if a friend or a parent is encouraging that...
so here's the encouragement.  everyone bring your books to the movie premier.  nitpick and mention loudly all the cool stuff that didn't make the movie.  (i hear groans already, but you know there's gonna be *something* left out, there always is.  JKR just has soo much stuff squished in there!) if each of us gets one kid in that theatre to go back and (re)read the books then we're making headway.

abbie, who has been studying for finals all day and suspects her brain is turning slowly to mush.

starling823 at yahoo.com
69% obsessed with HP and loving it
"Ah, music," Dumbledore said, wiping his eyes.  "A magic beyond all we do here!"
          -HP and the Sorcerer's Stone


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Scott 
  To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, 14 May, 2001 5:32 PM
  Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Aliteracy--various rants--why I'm not British


  ME A BRIT?

  Amy thought I was British! I don't know whether to be amused or 
  delighted or horrified! ;-) I assure you I'm an American, though 
  Anglophile wouldn't be stretching it I'm certainly not British. (My 
  friend predicted I was really a stalker of Brits since I seem so 
  infatuated. UK list members beware! BWHAHAHAHA!!!);-) In fact I've 
  never even lived outside of NC; visited lots of other places, but a 
  tarheel at heart! 

  The fact is my Yahoo page is set on UK and so it gave me a .uk email. 
  It was sort of a mistake.

  ALITERACY

  I love this list! The one thing I cannot imagine living without is 
  books. Take away all modern media even (gasp!) computers, but never 
  books. I took a technology class once (big mistake) and the teacher 
  would go on about the best invention ever being some integrated 
  specialised super computer chip, and I was like uh, no books are the 
  best thing ever....obviously!

  Some of my earliest memories  come from my mother reading the 
  classics to me. If she had just popped in a video tape, well thank 
  goodness she didn't, because I probably wouldn't be here typing right 
  now. (Some of you may be wishing I wasn't, but I for one am 
  thankful for finding this group and HP!)

  I'm still really wary of condemning movies though, because they can 
  be quite a stimulating piece of visual art. Like Amy I'm sure that 
  this isn't the purpose of WB's Harry Potter rendition, it's to make 
  money of course, but once in awhile you run across a wonderful movie. 
  Once in awhile. I should also add that I rarely go to the movies, 
  just once or twice a year, so maybe I'm totally naive, but I believe 
  that movies can be good. 

  Most of you are also completely anti-Disney, but I did grow up on 
  their animated movies as my main source of cinematic enertainment, 
  and I don't think I'm worse for the wear. I'm also not your typical 
  example, I mean how many other 11-12 year olds saw the animated 
  "Hunchback of Notre Dame" (which was horrid) and then went on to read 
  Victor Hugo's classic. (Confession: I didn't read the WHOLE thing 
  but...)

  I'd agrue that advertising and media are only as influential as we 
  allow them to be. Most children who grow up to love reading weren't 
  in homes that frowned upon books, some were and this only encouraged 
  them however I don't think that's the norm. It's about imagination. I 
  have an extremely active one, and I'd guess so do the rest of you. 
  What's there to imagine anymore?

  Imagination is what dreams are made of (old cliche I know but it'll 
  do.) It's colouring in the black and white, making the world come 
  alive with the beauty that lives only slightly below the suface of 
  the ordinary "muggle" world. It's realising that that world isn't 
  ordinary at all. 

  Imagination is magic, and for that matter so is reading.

  Scott



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