By Brayton Maxson, Intern, Summer 2014
Being homeschooled growing up, I was exposed to the power of books early and often. I started and ended every day being read to by my parents and because of these many hours of reading I had a love for books instilled in me. To this day I will still pick up a book that either I read growing up or my parents read out loud to my siblings and I get transported to the time and place of that book and the feelings that I had while reading that book.
The fact that not every child has the opportunity to have this experience with books is extremely sad to me. I want to be able to share the love of books. This is why I joined Book Harvest: to be able to instill the same love of books in kids that my mom instilled into my siblings and I growing up. I love the moment when a kid finds just the right book. The excitement and joy that the child feels is by far the best part of this internship.
One of these moments happened at Books On Break (BOB) at Glenn Elementary a couple weeks ago. The whole BOB experience was incredible but one specific moment where a kid expressed his joy in books stands out to me especially. In one of the fourth grade classes there was this one boy who was sitting alone with his teacher. He had not picked up any books and told me that there were no books that he was interested in. I did not believe him, so I went with him and was determined to find him books that he would be interested in.
He said he was interested in basketball so I spent a long time trying to find him sports books and action books and other books that other boys his age had enjoyed. He wanted very little to do with any of the books that I suggested. I was getting ready to give up and then we walked by a pile of Junie B Jones books. His eyes lit up. He got really excited, picked up two Junie B books and we were on a roll, picking up other books similar to Junie B and other books that I had not even thought to suggest for him. He quickly got his ten books and right before he left he gave me a big hug.
The rest of the time we were at Glenn he came up to me every time he saw me, greeted me with a hug and told me how much he loved the books. Seeing how the books made him light up that way is exactly why I wanted to be an intern with Book Harvest. I hope that I continue to have moments like this throughout my summer with Book Harvest. I hope we can continue to instill the love of books in kids.