Why I Read: Development Director, Ed Wilkens

by Ed Wilkens

Last night at our weekly dinner and chess rendezvous, my father handed me a scrap of yellowed vellum with the quote, "Richer than I you can never be. I had a mother who read to me"―Strickland Gillian, written in my great Aunt Josie’s hand.
 
“Because you inherited Mom’s love of reading and have made it your life’s work,” he said. “First with your own girls and now with their children, books always have mattered so much.”

I know raising a strong reader is much more than merely displaying and sharing a love of books, but I do believe that is how it begins. So, indulge me if you will, as I reflect on what that has meant to me. I’ll leave the technical and scientific accounts to those more knowledgeable and skilled than I, but I will claim both a love for reading and a mission to help others develop the same appreciation.

I grew up in a house rich with print. Mom was the reader, though Dad made the bookshelves! I was exposed to a dizzying array of material both fiction and non from an early age; perhaps in some case earlier than appropriate as I at least occasionally explored books beyond both my reading levels and social preparedness. As a young child I discovered libraries and roared through the entire Walter Farley “Black Stallion” series. As a young adult I took extra literature courses in high school and majored in English (literature) as an undergrad in college.

My children grew up in a house rich with print. Both Jill and I are avid readers with, fortunately for the girls, very different appetites. We still have boxes of children’s books from the girls’ first days on this planet. My heart doesn’t require an album, scrapbook or Snapfish to conjure cuddling with the girls to read and re-read those books. I made their bookshelves, and they helped fill them.
 
On several of my birthdays part of the celebration was a family road trip to Barnes and Noble where each one of us bought a book. Many of those books are now with the girls for their own children; many are still with Jill and me, nesting in baskets scattered around the house for when the grandchildren arrive.
 
Just last Saturday, Avery Ann, our first grandchild and only 15 months, toddled over to one basket, grabbed The Snowy Day, carried it over to me and tried to maintain her grip on the book and her bunny while climbing into my lap. Her cousin, Roman, is only two weeks old but he has way more books than toys.

Raising a strong reader begins with a house rich in print, is nurtured by moms and dads who read, and is promised by the love emerging from that combination. The science will come; start with a book and someone you love.

 Ed Wilkens served as a Vermont public school principal for 19 years across all grade levels pre-k through 12. He now works as Development Director for the Stern Center.