The other day I was "Googling" something and ended up coming across a webpage for the Southeast Saskatchewan Reading Council. It was a chance encounter, but one I'm glad I found. Not only was I able to speak with the local area council president, Joan Bue, but she kindly gave me a copy of the "Young Saskatchewan Writers" publication the Saskatchewan Reading Council creates each year.
In general I think this is an amazing idea. Youth are encouraged to write poems and stories through school that can then be submitted to be included within the publication. It's not a competition, but a celebration of writing. Pieces are chosen based simply on the allowance of 16 submissions from each subdivision of the Saskatchewan Reading Council across the province.
Sadly it was explained to me that there actually aren't many submissions each year; but, after reading through those from last year it was amazing to see how much talent there is for writing in the immediate area.
Grade one's wrote about their houses using wonderful descriptive words, while another grade one student from Carlyle had added text to drawings of penguins. Absolutely adorable this one was worth a chuckle or two.
One student in grade six last year from Arcola wrote an extremely funny piece titled "Why the Banana is Yellow," which had mean papayas covering the poor banana in yellow paint that could never be taken off. In turn the papayas were punished by the fruit gods and were changed into ugly shades of green and yellow.
Youth wrote about personal topics and fantastical ones, such as the story about the first banana, but they wrote with enthusiasm and depth. Using intricate verbs and adjectives each story was made that much more compelling to read.
I remember when I was younger I read a lot. Today I still read a fair amount, but it's harder for me to sit down with a book just because I work with words everyday: reading and writing. But, thinking about where my love of literature came from it was easy to recall sitting with my mom and reading. I don't necessarily remember the stories, but she made reading fun.
We'd sit there and she'd read to me, doing different voices for each character talking and using the punctuation in the book to relate the feelings associated with the scene. It was constant, we read before I went to bed every night from what I can remember. It started with her reading to me and slowly evolved to me reading to her.
I still remember, I think I would have been around grade four, able to read by now in my head; but, my mom still took the time to ask me what I was reading and see if I would still read with her. We finished a series of books, which I can't remember what they were called now, but the fact that she was willing to sit and read any book I brought home with me makes me thankful.
I likely wouldn't have found my way to where I am now without that encouragement of literacy and how she made reading and writing fun. It was something I looked forward to everyday and something we could do together.
Though we don't read books aloud to each other anymore, we now share books. We tell each other which books we liked or didn't like and have even discussed ones we've both read. From "The Hunger Games" to "Shantaram" we still read anything and can enjoy discussing them.
My sister, though she hated reading when she was younger, has recently fallen in love with it over the past few years and now partakes in our conversations as well. It's just something that continues to bring our family together.
Literacy in Canada is better than in many other countries around the world, but it can still be improved. It's important, in my opinion, to start early and spend time reading together. I possibly would have found reading on my own and how much fun it can be to delve into different worlds or pick up a historical text and learn something new; but, I honestly attribute my love of reading to how my mom made it such a fun activity.
