This personal essay I’m writing isn’t about a worldly book about a different culture that gives me this new view on the world. It’s not about a book where the main character has been through an inspiring journey that changed the way I look at my life.
No.
This essay is about a children’s book, "Jack Russell: Dog Detective" by Darrel and Sally Odgers. This is a book I read when I was 10. The first book that led to many more to come. The first book that gave me this amazing power. The power of love; to fall in love with the simplicity of one word, that has the ability to create a whole story.
Ten years old.
It took me 10 years to confidently say that I was able to read. I was diagnosed with a learning disability at the age of six. I remember looking down at blurred words on paper. Letters upon letters forming into words i couldn't pronounce correctly. Switching up my B’s and D’s as if they were interchangeable. My small brain didn’t absorb the concepts of the plot. By the time my eyes wandered past the first page, everyone else was done with the entire book.
When my mother found out about my learning disability, which was mild dyslexia and a processing disorder, she immediately got me a tutor and an official legal document known as an IEP (Individual Education Program,) in order to help me succeed within my academics. I was different from my classmates. I would miss activities during school, such as electives, in order to go to tutoring. An inclusion teacher was constantly by my side, helping me with certain things I didn’t want to admit I needed help with. I was treated different, therefore I was different.
After years of endless hours spent on tutoring; summer school included, my reading skills finally were prospering, yet I still didn’t find a love for reading. I hated reading books in accordance to my grade level, because I was awful at it, and didn’t want to confront failure.This frustrated my teachers and tutor because they believed that the best way to reach my full potential in this learning process was to read and read some more.
It wasn’t until I came across Jack Russell: Dog Detective that I fully immersed myself into a book. Looking at this book from the outside, it was scary; small letters, a lot of pages, and multiple words. It took me a lot of courage to open up that book, but once I did I fell in love with the words reflecting off the pages. For the first time in my life, I was even more sad to end a book, than I was to start one.
This wasn’t my favorite book, and in all honestly I forget most of the story line. But that’s not the point of this essay. The point of this essay is to describe how one book, lead to an ever lasting love for reading. After reading Jack Russell: Dog Detective, I was hooked. All of a sudden I was spending my free time reading a variety of books and consuming words like oxygen. When my tutor announced that my reading skills finally matched up to my grade level I was extremely happy. I looked back on all my hard work and felt relieved.
If you knew me 8 years ago, you would have never thought I would be the person I am today. You would have never thought I would be in the highest level of English within my school. You would have never thought I would be going into college for a major involving literature. I could give all the credit to my tutors for making me the person I am now; so passionate about reading and my academics, but I know that isn't the total truth. Yes, tutoring has helped me tremendously with my reading skills, but without that silly children’s book, Jack Russell: Dog Detective, I wouldn’t be able to proudly say, that I love to read and always will.
