Reading to Rose

All through Claude's childhood from the age of four or younger (he's now sixteen) I read to him every evening at bedtime, until he was about fourteen, when he didn't want me to do that any more..  During those years we got through many books, children's books and classics of English fiction.  I just hope it will turn out to have been useful to him.

I started reading to Rose about three or four months ago.  Rose doesn't have the patience or the vocabulary to read English fiction, although she likes researching stuff online such as herbal cures, and knows quite a lot about them. I began with "Gone with the Wind", not really a good choice as I had not read it myself before, it's very long and there are too many passages where the author is just trying to describe someone's feelings.  I got bored with it myself at times! But we got to the end eventually, and Rose and I will both have some idea of the American Civil War and its devastations. 

I followed with "Cider with Rosie" by Laurie Lee, a favourite of mine, but until I started to read it to her I had not realised how complex the language sometimes was, dialect (familar to me from my childhood in that area) and allusions to classical works abound.  Nevertheless it seemed to hold her interest, to a certain extent.

I realised I would have to find something simpler, so I  decided upon "Anne of Green Gables", which we started a few days ago.  This is much more successful, and we are both crying and laughing our way through it.  While I can read such a book quite calmly to myself, when reading it to Rose I find tears and laughter uncontrollably bubbling up frequently, and have to keep tissues nearby.  To me, Anne is a very sympathetic character and much like myself in many ways.  It's clear that Rose is enjoying it and looking forward to the next installment.

I"m interested in reading aloud to someone as it gives "scope for the imagination", as Anne herself would say, whereas watching a film or TV leaves nothing for the imagination to work on.