Summary and Response

The article one great book is a literacy reading written by Stephanie Whipple. It is a story about her life in her attempts to grasp the knowledge of reading. In the story, she traces on her first book she loved and could not stop reading. Stephanie highlights the hindrances she had to face in her quest for knowledge of reading. At grade one level of study, she could not read fluently as she was always disturbed by the presence of her younger brother. Her younger brother would pop during reading training sessions with her dad and read the word before she could figure out how the word is read. This intimidated her since the young boy was in kindergarten. The difference between the two was that Stephanie was a slow learner while her brother was a fast learner.

Stephanie decided to quit reading for drawing and other art activities following the intimidation from her brother. She only read when forced by her mother or her teachers. She convinced herself that reading was not her thing. Her mother always had hope for her finding a book that would tie her down to reading. She never believed this until one day, out of boredom and weather condition, when her mother presented her with a book that became her favorite. The book was entitled a tree grows in Brooklyn. The book is about a little poor girl known as Francie. After reading the book, Stephanie could not stop thinking about the little girl. She had a great connection with the little girl and this made her like reading the book. Her perception towards reading changed. She never thought of how one could not like reading. Stephanie believes that if one claims that he/she does not like reading, then he/she has not found a book that would put them down to liking reading.

In this literacy reading Stephanie creates and establishes tensions by bring in her younger brother into play. Her brother collides with the father when he tries to interfere with Stephanie during reading lessons. This creates conflicts between Stephanie and her brother. There is some conflict between Stephanie and her mother. She feels disappointed by her lack of reading skills and interests. Stephanie feels intimidated with her brother’s capabilities in the field of reading. These conflicts illustrates on the level of tension created in the narrative.

In her first stages of the article, Stephanie hopes for present tense in order to bring out the characters and settings of the narrative. This is a smart movie by the writer as the reader is drawn into the real situation of what took place in the past. The reader is able to recognize the level of disturbance caused by the young brother. The picture comes out clearly through the present tense used. She also uses past continuous tense in her narrative to bring out characters and settings in the play. All these plus the past tense used in the narrative proves to be effective as the reader is caught into the real scenario.

To illustrate the point of change in the narrative, Stephanie goes for story telling elements rather than being straight to the point. She tells a story of one day when her family were at one place on the mountain house. This element makes the reader to what to know more of what takes place in the mountain house. The reader does not lose focus during the reading experience. Stephanie uses descriptive and specific word to help bring out the picture of the settings. This is mainly evident in the early paragraphs of the narrative. Stephanie in her narrative tries to prove that children should be given time to do their things. Children learn at different levels. Some are fast learners while others are slow learners.