Our Hungry Book Worm

Lia has had a love of books since she was a baby.  I clearly remember watching her "knee walk" (what she would do sometimes instead of crawling) to the basket of books I used to keep in our old family room.  She would then sit there and look through book after book for many minutes at a time which was pretty impressive for a little girl who had just turned one.  Over the years, Lia's love of reading has only continue to grow.  She has evolved from a little girl who loved to sit in our laps and listen to story after story be read to her to a confident reader who now devours novels in a matter of days.
Although reading really clicked for Lia by the end of first grade, she still preferred to read her bedtime stories/books with either Ron or me.  However, this past December while she was in the third grade, Lia started going back to her room at night and reading silently on her own after she had finished reading her book with Ron in our bedroom.  She started doing this while reading through the American Girl Doll Felicity series and continued after Christmas with the American Girl Doll Caroline mystery books that she had recieved as a gift.  From that point on, she was hooked.  Lia will now read for a good 30 minutes every night after she goes back to her bedroom if I allow her.  It has been amazing to watch her read through several American Girl Doll series (Molly, Addy, Samantha, Kit, and several of the AGD mystery books) and all of the Harry Potter books.  Since I have loved Harry Potter since I read the first book back in 1999, I introduced this series to Lia in Kindergarten when I read to her the first two books.  Lia immediately loved it and has enjoyed watching the various movies over the years.  As a result, she decided to start all over again this winter and read through the series on her own.  I must admit, I was a little skeptical as these books are a lot longer and much more complicated than the American Girl Doll books.  However, I am proud to say that Lia totally proved me wrong.  She began reading these books and was immediately hooked.  She couldn't put them down and could be found reading them whenever she had a few minutes to spare.  When school got out and her schedule really freed up, Lia went crazy reading over 100 pages per day--especially on days when we were travelling.  She would spend hours in the car reading!  I just loved it.  So I am proud to report that Lia has officially completed all EIGHT books in the Harry Potter series (including the newest one that was written as a play) just as summer is ending!  She has literally read thousands of pages in the past few months and I am so proud of her!  Here is to many, many more years of having a book worm living in our house.

Lia surrounded by all eight of my Harry Potter books that she has read in the past few months.

An adorable picture of my girl and her favorite series!