LIBS 642

ALYANA LARA
CAUGHT RE(A)D HANDED

AN INTRODUCTION AND WHAT IT

MEANS TO READ

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY

VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 1
SEPTEMBER 2019
Literacy is a skill that comes
from reading and is one of the
most important skills that
someone can have; it doesn’t
just concern someone’s ability
to read fluently, but it also gives
a person the ability to
understand the world around
them and it bleeds into many
other disciplines. My family
understood this concept well,
especially my grandparents;
they were very poor when they
were younger to go to school,
and had to learn to read on
their own. Due to this, most of
my family didn’t really read
unless it was necessary, and
they don’t have the attention
span to be able to sit and read
through a book. So to reinforce
the skills that they only had
little experience with, I was told
when I was younger that
reading books can make you an
intellectual and that it’s
important to always read. Since
my early childhood, there has
OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY
always been a place in my heart
for books. They have inspired, "READING
informed, and entertained me,
and they always provide a MAKES
different perspective from mine
to see the world in. Books have IMMIGRANTS OF
helped me develop my
personality and my interests, US ALL. IT TAKES
and they provided a safe place
to escape into another “world.” US AWAY FROM
From a very young age, I was
constantly reading some sort of
HOME, BUT
book, whether it was an old
Disney book that came from a
MORE
movie (Cinderella, Winnie the
Pooh, etc.) or a children’s bible
IMPORTANT, IT
that was given to me by my
parents that would be read FINDS HOMES
every night before going to bed.
Most of the time, these books FOR US
would be read to me by my
parents or my grandma, and my EVERYWHERE."
grandpa would sometimes read
what was on the newspaper JEAN RHYS
every morning to me. While I
was in elementary school, my
cousins arrived to the States
LIBS 642  |    1
 and some of them would also read to me like my parents and grandparents so that they could
practice their English. On top of reading to me often, I was also learning to read and speak Filipino
(Tagalog) at the same time with English, which had some pros and cons once I got into elementary
school. Being bilingual ultimately gave me even more room to explore books. Since my family was
incredibly busy during my childhood, I don’t remember going to the public library often. However,
the local Barnes & Noble was a place that my parents would occasionally take my sister and I when
they had the time. They would usually bring us there for read alouds and other community events.
Doing this helped me gain more interest in literature.

"SHE SMILED. 'LIFE IS FULL OF STORIES. OR MAYBE

LIFE IS ONLY STORIES. GOOD NIGHT, MY DEAR
NAO.'"
RUTH OZEKI, A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING

As soon as I was introduced to school, my love
and scope for books evolved as I began to
read more from authors such as Roald Dahl
(The BFG and Matilda), Dr. Seuss (The Cat in
the Hat), and Elisabetta Dami (The Geronimo
Stilton Series) to name a few. Most of these
books were Accelerated Reader (AR) books
that I could find in my school library, and
because the incentives of getting AR points
were attractive, I would go to the library as
much as I can to read as many books that I
could fit into my backpack. On top of AR
points, I would always try to get books
whenever a book fair came to my school.
Some of the other times that I would go to
the library would be with the whole class for
read alouds or to get help from the librarian
for research projects.
Most of my memories of reading were pretty
great, however, I do remember having some
difficulty when I was in preschool and
kindergarten. Preschool in particular was hard
because I would speak Filipino at home and
would only hear English on TV or when I was
out of the house (a party, the grocery store,
etc.). Due to this, I was enrolled in a speech
program that clumped English Language
Learners (ELLs) and students with speech
impediments together, and was removed
from the classroom often. This carried on into
kindergarten, where I started having difficulty
with the pronunciation of different affixes,
such as “-ing.” Although I had difficulties, I
ended up becoming a very high-level reader
from there on out.

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY LIBS 642  |    2

 Through middle and high school, I was still a very
high-level reader, but I began to dread reading
books for assignments. For a long time, I didn’t read
books for fun because most of my time was
occupied by reading books for class. Although this
was the case for me, there were a couple of other
books that were assigned that I actually read front
to back, such as Night by Elie Wiesel, To Kill a
Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Cry, the Beloved
Country by Alan Paton, and Kite Runner by Khaled
Hosseini. College was also very similar to my
experiences in middle and high school, but when I
enrolled in an Asian American Literature course, it
inspired me to go back to reading again. Some of
the books that I picked up thanks to this class
include A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki,
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami,
and When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka.

Thanks to my upbringing, books have played a vital

role in both my personal and academic life.
Literature has shown me that I can learn about
new and different things, and it can open doors to
many opportunities outside of what’s around you. I
hope that the experiences and the things that I
have learned during my school career can
eventually be used to help other students in my
own classroom, so that they can gain the necessary
literacy skills to grow into their own person and
develop a love for learning.

“The books transported

her into new worlds and
introduced her to
amazing people who
lived exciting lives...
She traveled all over
the world while sitting
in her little room...”

ROALD DAHL, MATILDA

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY LIBS 642  |    3